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Give this company a child's drawing and they'll make it into a stuffed toy
- zem 15y agoas an interesting tangent, the [hopkin green frog](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopkin_Green_Frog http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopkin_Green_Frog) thing that went viral some years ago, and which people assumed was a kid's typically clumsy attempt to draw his pet frog, turned out to be a pretty accurate drawing of his missing toy frog.
- latch 15y agoMy question would be: assuming you want to, how do you scale it? There's such an individual toy-by-toy creative aspect to it. Also, the potential for building brands seems pretty spectacular. Stuffed toy is just one step, you could add stories, games, episodes...this could be to disney what 99designs is to graphic designers :)
- baby 15y agoOr they could work only for rich babies? :)
- thom 15y agoI hope we're not far off being able to sit your child in front of a webcam, sample their voice, click a button and stream the latest Pixar film with them as a protagonist. In the meantime, a 99designs for people with time, knitting needles and sewing machines seems like a lovely idea, and easy to achieve.
- davidw 15y ago> I hope we're not far off being able to sit your child in front of a webcam, sample their voice, click a button and stream the latest Pixar film with them as a protagonist. The little brats (well, my own), are already the center of enough attention. If they want to make their own stories, they should go outside, play and invent them themselves.
- 0x12 15y agoCan I nominate this for HN comment of the year?
- dspillett 15y ago> My question would be: assuming you want to, how do you scale it? Franchising perhaps? Quality control would be an issue once you start farming the job out like that, but it would be a good way to better cover international markets. They could keep the designing local to the current HQ, hiring designer types there to supply demand and farm out the physical work. Though I suspect a project like this might be a personal one, they they don't particularly want to scale massively.
- FrojoS 15y agoWhy would someone pay the franchise instead of just opening up their own competitor?
- dspillett 15y agoFranchise might have been the wrong word to use - maybe it would work better as a "co-operative" with the original people in general control rather than a directly paid franchise. That way customers from any country go to the same place (saving each member of the co-op on advertising budget/time) but get the work done by someone more local to them so hopefully pay less due to local delivery and lack of customs charges. You migth find many peopel who are capable of making something like that from a pattern but maybe no capable/comfortable making a good pattern from the kids' designs - there would be a value add" there having that stage done for you. I know a few people who make things (and make them well) as a hobby but who do not make their own designs - I could imagine one or two of them being interested in getting involved at that level just to make the hobby pay for some of itself. Obviously any controlling company would have to give some quality assurance to the customer, which would be part of how they justify their cut (as well as providing the design stage if they are) though could be a bit of a nightmare. This assurance might be why people go to this hypothetical cooperative rather than one of the smaller groups (or individuals) that try under-cutting them.
- mgkimsal 15y agomarketing and name recognition.
- tintin 15y agoMaybe this should and will not scale well. Most of the time the work of an artist does not scale well.
- jsavimbi 15y agoThis would not scale at all. The work is done on an individual basis by an artist who not only takes great pains to interpret what the child has drawn, but also above and beyond to transform it into a personalized, and near perfect, piece of art. Just ask any offshore worker to reinterpret a set of well-documented requirements and you'll see what I mean.
- _zeos_ 15y ago;) yes, you are right, and It hurts, Internet can scale it, in some cases, if not - then can be spread, modified and parallelized (or even better, if it is copy-left...)
- snorkel 15y agoPartner with an established greeting card company to sell greeting cards that double as gifts: consumer pays $20 for the greeting card, the recipient child draws on the card then drops it in the mailbox, gets their stuffed toy sent back in the mail.
- JoshTriplett 15y agoNice idea, off by an order of magnitude on the price. :)
- cookiecaper 15y agoThe only way to "scale" is to form a company of similarly-skilled artists. Even if this happens, it is unlikely that they'd ever be able to keep up with demand. It's obviously not something you can send off to China and press the button on an assembly line. Some things just can't be mass produced, and we should be grateful for that.
- pbhjpbhj 15y agoI don't think that's the only way to scale it. There would be compromises involved, of course, but I can immediately think of another way to scale this idea - I'm sure others can too.
- mikeburrelljr 15y agoLove it!
- ck2 15y agoIt's a fantastic idea - but I would point out what a child sees in their head vs their drawing capabilities are probably very different. Still, I guess they could recognize it as something they created and it might encourage them to keep being creative?
- mbreese 15y agoWell, if they draw something and declare "That's my friend Foo!". If you show up with a stuffed version of their drawing, they are likely to recognize that as "Foo". Kids have a way of not letting their lack of drawing skill or details get in the way of a good story. Plus, I doubt they could turn a 3 year old's drawings into something. My kid's drawings aren't that recognizable yet... (just lines and squiggles)
- Splines 15y agoSometimes they can surprise you: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3109213/sfb.jpg http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3109213/sfb.jpg My daughter was almost 3 when she drew this. Most of her stuff doesn't come out like this, but I saved this one since it was weirdly real.
- kaybe 15y agoWow, not bad! And I can imagine that being a great plushie..
- cookiecaper 15y agoI think it's probably much more valuable to the parents than the children. While your kid might get a kick out of it, this is a pretty good alternative to keeping the same pictures on the fridge for several years at a time.
- tlrobinson 15y agoI agree, in particular the one with the stick arms/legs (http://www.childsown.com/frame/images/bigheadguy_04.jpg http://www.childsown.com/frame/images/bigheadguy_04.jpg) and the Ferrari (http://www.childsown.com/frame/images/car_04.jpg http://www.childsown.com/frame/images/car_04.jpg). But I like the idea.
- demoo 15y agoHeartwarming :) Reminds me of My Machine, an organization that takes children drawings of machines and make them come to live. http://mymachine.be/en/node/20 http://mymachine.be/en/node/20
- kori 15y agoMonster engine is of a similar vein, but they take kids' monster drawings instead: http://themonsterengine.com/ http://themonsterengine.com/
- topbanana 15y agoQ. Do you take adult’s drawings? R. I personally prefer to work with children’s drawings, but occasionally, I have worked with the adult’s (inner child’s) drawings. The best thing to do is contact me with the drawing and I will let you know what I think.
- dools 15y agoThis is positively magical. I can't wait til my child is old enough to draw something coherent enough :) Absolutely brilliant.
- plainOldText 15y agoThis is a cute idea. I'm wondering if they make any money since on their website it says: "Child's Own Studio has custom made over 200 personal softies". I'm thinking whether a redesign of their website and a more aggressive Facebook campaign (they only have 1000+ fans) would help them sell more. It probably would. No. It definitely would. They could also have a checkbox on the order form to allow other people to order their drawn creatures. And then have a top 10 on the front page with the most popular toys. They could even have a competition: which kid designs the cutest animal. Oh, I could make this a phenomenon. Boy, I can't believe I'm thinking about strategies of how I would improve a toys' business. Eh, just 2AM rant.
- latch 15y agoIf you read her blog you'll see that she's at capacity. If they really want to turn this into an enterprise (and I absolutely think they should!), they need to figure out how to handle more volume before getting more volume.
- martincmartin 15y agoIf they really want to turn this into an enterprise (and I absolutely think they should!) Why's that? What if she's happy doing what she's doing now (sewing, turning fabric and stuffing into something amazing for a kid), and doesn't want to be a business woman? In other words, if she wants a lifestyle company, why should she turn it into an enterprise?
- latch 15y agoI'm projecting. Besides, she could keep doing what she's doing and hire someone to take care of the business side. It's more than just the money, I think what makes this so appealing is how great it is for children...I think the more she can reach, the better. Of course, I agree it's her choice.
- swah 15y agoMake money, create jobs, make more kids happy. She obviously doesn't have to, though.
- josscrowcroft 15y agoHahah, this made my day. I have some great ideas for toys I want to make, gonna give them a try!
- gougify 15y agoThat is a great idea
- cookiecaper 15y agoThis is an awesome idea. I'm considering stealing it, I think my wife would really enjoy doing something like this.
- watmough 15y agoFor something this lovely, you wouldn't really be stealing, just helping.
- ndespres 15y agoBrings to mind this classic 60's Mad Magazine article "If kids designed their own Xmas toys." http://thatsmyskull.blogspot.com/2005/12/mad-magazine-if-kids-designed-their.html http://thatsmyskull.blogspot.com/2005/12/mad-magazine-if-kid... This is great!
- rickdale 15y agoAnyone know of something similar but with a pull string capability?
- user24 15y agocontact the person who runs the site, I'm sure they'll do their best. From what I've read here, it's just one person doing this because they enjoy doing it. You tend to get excellent customer service from those types of ventures.
- jberryman 15y agoThis reminds me of something the artisans working at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma did. http://www.museumofglass.org/ http://www.museumofglass.org/ They got school kids to send in drawings of creatures and then these guys actually rendered them in colored glass in front of the kids. They had the pieces and the kids' drawings on display. Very cute and often hilarious.
- shabble 15y agoI'm reminded of the Klein Bottles site: http://www.kleinbottle.com/ http://www.kleinbottle.com/ I could have sworn he did custom work, but I can't seem to see it listed on the site anywhere now. Still an awesome present for a mathematician though.
- gwern 15y agoAt the Corning Museum of Glass in upstate NY too. (They picked one a day drawn by visitors; my family didn't win, unfortunately.)
- hopeless 15y agoIt's cute and it's cool but I'm not convinced. My daughter's drawings things are her interpretation of real things but I'm not convinced she'd want a real interpretation of her artistic interpretation of a real thing. After all, her drawings are often down to her limited skills rather than an intentional artistic choice.
- kellishaver 15y agoI saw a similar site a while back that took a slightly different approach to making real-world items from kids drawings that probably works better in this regard - they turned them into jewelry for moms in the form of necklaces and pendants. I don't think the site is around anymore, though. I believe it was just one person making them.
- bmj 15y agoI suspect this varies from child to child. My older son would really dig this, as he often sketches something out then attempts to build it (whether it is with legos, blocks, wood, found items in the cellar, etc).
- hexagonc 15y agoMaybe it's not as hopeless as you think. (Sorry, couldn't resist, what with a name like that!) I could imagine many young children being astonished at seeing their 2d pictures come alive. Perhaps as a reward for good behavior, you could actively solicit drawings from your daughter to be made into a toy. On an unrelated note, how about adding a rapid prototyping lab so that you can create plastic as well as plush toys from kids' drawings?
- tonetheman 15y agoeffin amazing and great idea. not sure if they can scale it but god that is brilliant
- joshes 15y agoThis may be a tad tangential, but this reminds me a great deal (in terms of the higher level concept) of Imaginawesome: http://imaginawesome.com/ http://imaginawesome.com/ tl;dr: give this guy a child's drawing, and he sprinkles "awesome dust" on it.
- kaybe 15y agoSimilar concept with photos: http://www.yeondoojung.com/artworks_view_wonderland.php?no=88 http://www.yeondoojung.com/artworks_view_wonderland.php?no=8...
- BlazingFrog 15y agoHN killed her business (if only temporarily): Bandwidth Limit Exceeded The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.
- VBprogrammer 15y agoI've just emailed the email from the contact page, have a VPS which is doing nothing. I would be happy to help her get her website up and running again. Also, noticed this was posted on Reddit and a few other places so its probably being hammered.
- thret 15y agoHN does this frequently. We are Anon, we take down obscure but interesting blogs and small companies.
- rhplus 15y agoThe blog is still up, and has some great stories: http://childsownstudio.blogspot.com/ http://childsownstudio.blogspot.com/
- noduerme 15y agoHer work's amazing. She's taking the intent and smoothing out the rough edges, filling in the undefined aspects. I've worked with a few really great illustrators and designers as either a designer or an art director. I can't name more than three in the last ten years, and all have been women. She has the rare quality they have of being able inernalize an original vision that's not their own, immediately and viscerally grasp the ineffable qualities that give it its unique personality, and turn it into a final product that looks polished while communicating exactly what the original artist intended. And reading her blog, it's obvious how she does it. She TALKS to the people who she's doing the work for. So how exactly would this scale without losing quality? Clone her? This takes patience, communications, personal integrity and a huge amount of skill and vision. I think it's the most impressive piece of work I've seen on HN this year. There's no reason at all to look at it through the narrow filter of what you'd do if it were an IT startup. It's just awesome for what it is.
- lftl 15y agoShe TALKS to the people who she's doing the work for. So how exactly would this scale without losing quality? I'm in no way saying she would want to do any of this, and I'm not talking about scaling to mass production or anything, but I imagine she could easily offload some of the more common tasks. Particularly, you've completely nailed that her rare skill is in the translation and design. However, as long as she's capable of reliably communicating her vision and design to a decent seamstress she could easily offload the actual creation to others. She could focus on meeting with clients, translating their design and communicating to the people who will actually put it together. If she wanted to go in a little further, she could work on apprenticing a few designers as well. She could still sit in on most or all meetings with clients, communicate broad ideas to the designer, check their design before it gets sent to production, etc. Basically I think her company could scale just as well as any decent IT consulting firm (or really more appropriately any advertising agency) might.
- dmg8 15y agoCute. The site's down for me, but I found their flickr stream here, plenty more creatures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/childsown/3465520257/in/photostream/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/childsown/3465520257/in/photost... The before and afters are great. I love the ones that were a scribbly mess in the drawing and end up looking nice but still reminscient of what the kid sketched.
- kgen 15y agoNeat! Not only is it a good idea, from the blog posted in other replies, the execution was impressive as well.
- tamle 15y agothis.is.awesome.
- adlep 15y agoAwesome idea, now she will have enough orders to last a hundred years.
- sabat 15y agoI love the idea -- I wish I could see it! My almost-6-year-old would love to have his drawing turn into a real stuffed animal. Bandwidth exceeded. Le sigh.