Jacketnicholson is, originally a wearable musical instrument conceived to be a portable toy for kids. It has buttons that when pressed, will sound, a mic and a speaker for the kid to hear him/herself. It has an interior and desattachable jacket (as shown down) with all the cables and technical stuff on it, to be able to wash the outside jacket.
Observating my son Raimundo, I realized that we spent a lot of time travelling, in the subway, to the supermarket, from ITP, moving in/out, to Chile... this can be very pleasant for babies while they don't move by themselves and they enjoy watching people, but in the minute they become active, a portable toy, believe me, it's a very good alternative for them to interact and for moms to deal with the tiny space in the stroller, time (remain them entretained), and for them to have fun. At this age (6 months up to 24) children are developing their mimic skills, with this, they learn how to know the world that surrounds them.
FIRST IDEA : At first, I thought about making a foldable "house", that you could built wherever, to mantain the kid near you... Then, the idea of a costume, the kid could wear and desattach other stuff, foldables, portable, buildables... Finally, and again, obsevating how small kids are always attracted to buttons, zippers, earings, labels and tiny stuff, and also very sensitive to sound, I decide to match both in a musical jacket.
Considering that to play is how children learn most of their skills in the future, since it is an experience, I thought it could be fun to make a wearable instrument the child could create his own "experience" (remember when as a kid, you did sounds to mean yes or no?-----is it me?) Also, it was important not only for the kid to interact with his own by means of the jacket, but also, with other kids, they might sing together or enhance other children to touch the one with the jacket to make it sound... >>>.mov
FEATURES :
- Transformation ( I want to make some secret pocket, maybe the backpack can be a superhero cape...?) ---surprise element-----
GOOD THINGS OF WEARING JACKETNICHOLSON :
- It's friendly : makes other children want to touch yours. - It's empowering : it enhances learning skills (children : put attention on what are we wearing, how to snap on buttons), gives control to the kid of his/her own jacket . - It gives the child a sense of group play (singing together, as you "play" I dance, for example...), this makes them play creatively. -It's close to what they know already, how to deal with buttons, microphone, sound...but this is only one part of the game, the other has to be done by themselves. - It gives them a tool to become a little performer.
AGE TARGET :
2 - 4 y/o >>>because...
IMPROVEMENTS : (>>>please comment on my blog!)
i thought a lot on how to be able to improve the concept, about putting the "secret pocket", the cape, maybe to set the jacket on a context, give children a fantasy beyond the jacket...maybe tematic? should I keep it simple? I came up with the idea of the -superhero ------kids need to be challenged and surprised, so after a while i came up with the idea of making a super power jacket, this is a jacket that could have sound as well, as a superhero (wow!, pow!, punch!, etc), or quotes like "let's go inside the car".... it'll look as a superhero too, this is arms full of muscles and abs, a cape inside a pocket....other buuttons with sounds, maybe lights........is it too much? bad thing now : it won't be unisex... (if i continue with the first idea, the one you saw in class, should i change the design?)-------help!
-----it will look like this (sort of, with buttons, or muscles to be pressed, like a cushion)....
references : -I guess it would be an animal sound jacket, farm animal sound jacket...I sew a overol to my son about 5 months ago, and put some colorful farm motive buttons on the chest. Every time we travel by subway or take long walks, he would be very entretained playing with them (as mentioned in first approach, kids are interested on bittons, tags, things hanging...)
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