The Monsters Are Loose!

For The Monsters are Loose!, the designers’ intention is to encourage children to playfully interact with their furniture, testing and sharpening their sense of touch.

Touch is one of the most important senses to capture, classify and store information about our surroundings. Especially for children, tactile experiences have a primary importance. By touching objects, children learn to understand and organize the world around them, grasping abstract connections.

Designers’ intention is to give children’s furniture, which is often only functional, boring and short-lived, a haptic feel. We want to achieve this through interesting and visually appealing fibers. Children are being encouraged to playfully interact with their furniture and test out and sharpen their sense of touch. Through the creation of monster characters, they want to bring forward an emotional connection to the furniture has been established and thus it’s longevity. It becomes a friend, a playmate and a protector at night. For every piece of furniture there will be a children’s book illustrating each monster’s own history and teaching the child about the items functionality in a playful way.

The product family consists of a nightlight, a footstep and a chest: a nightlight in the dark, leading the way to the bathroom, that you can take with you wherever you go, due to its built-in rechargeable battery. A footstep, helping the child to reach the sink, in case it is still missing a few inches. Because of the fibers the step slides on the ground silently and prevents scratch marks simultaneously. The toys can be stored away in the chest. The soft fibers are making it impossible to pinch the fingers. The chest’s lid acts as drawing table. Valuables, which no one is allowed to see, can be hidden in the secret compartment.