Playful reading chair for children
Kelly Parker
The purpose of my seat is to encourage a child to read, by generating curiosity, being unique and novel in its appearance. The seat will be made to the specifications needed for a child to sit comfortably; it will be designed to have an inviting space where children can enjoy reading a book.
Design Inspiration
After visiting my local library and seeing only one small grey 2-seater sofa and several floor cushions, I decided I wanted to design a seat for children to sit and enjoy reading. I wanted my design to look different to the other seats on offer; to be fun and it needed to be eye catching for children.
Reading is part of the UK school curriculum; I decided I wanted to create a seat aimed for the use of primary school aged children so between 5 – 11 years old. I researched educational furniture in the UK; I found out it needs to meet the requirement of BS EN 7729 standards based on average hights for these age groups. This means the research has already been done and the geometrics can be made to these measurements to meet the standards.
Research
The seats could be used in educational settings but also many others, such as:
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Libraries
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Homes
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Children’s hospitals
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Community centres
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Youth clubs
Application
I have chosen to take the post-modernist perspective for my design concept and the design principle driving my concept is semantic and form. I chose this principle as it uses form to make references to other objects. My vision is to create meaning, to have a playful association, a seat that looks like a book, with the aim of it being unique and aesthetically pleasing for its intended user.
I am a mature student loving my design journey so far, I have grown in confidence with each design. I am enthusiastic about product design, after graduation my dream job would be to work designing children’s toys and educational material.