Best Eco Toy Design | Junior Design Awards 2019
Sustainable toys are very much at the heart of Junior's ethos. These are the brands we believe are leading the way...
WINNER: GOLD BEST ECO TOY DESIGN
WHO: Le Toy Van Ltd Stacking Veggies
WHAT: A set of three wooden vegetables with personality that come in sections that you can stack onto their cute wooden pots. Mix and match to create a carrot, beetroot and radish. Made from replenishable rubber wood and finished in gorgeous water based colours with beautifully hand sewn fabric leaves, these veggies are eco friendly and sustainably made.
WHY: This trio of super cute veggies really appealed to our judges who felt they would make a lovely addition to any nursery, encouraging familiarity and affection for vegetables and teaching the basics about how they’re grown. The panel were also extremely impressed by maker, Le Toy Van’s commitment being 100% plastic free by 2021. Our judges wrote in their notes:
I love this set for its colourful funky design.
I adore these little veg pots that are so cute and beautifully painted – perfect for little green fingers.
Wooden toys are the way to go - biodegradable, hard-wearing and wonderfully tactile. These root veggies look fun to play with and would look great on a bedroom shelf.
WHERE: Le Toy Van
WINNER: SILVER BEST ECO TOY DESIGN
WHO: Petit Collage Wild Rainbow Wooden Balancing Game
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WHAT: A sustainably made and eco friendly balancing game made with FSC-certified wood and printed with non-toxic neon inks. Players roll the multi-coloured die and then stack the corresponding animal or rainbow piece (not impossible) to stack! The cheerful, lovely neon rainbow and animal pieces make this a fun game with a slight challenge to make it mentally stimulating for growing minds.
WHY: This beautifully designed game was a big favourite amongst our judges who loved the bright zingy colours, the cute animals combined with that perennial favourite the rainbow. The clever and considerate design in the quest for balance that stretched kids but wasn’t impossible was appreciated and the fact that this can be played with by multiple kids or just one child was also noted. Our judges said:
Category winner for me!!
This is such a gorgeous looking set and also provides lots and lots of fun. I can imaging playing this with my daughter and my husband – great for family bonding as well as fun with friends.
This is brilliant!
WHERE: Petit Collage
WINNER: JOINT BRONZE BEST ECO TOY DESIGN
WHO: noook
WHAT: Originally designed for the Design Museum, noook is a recycled cardboard, large scale building toy that encourages kids to be artists, architects and designers. The aim is to connect the brightly coloured cardboard shapes together to create shelters, bridges, pathways or anything their imaginations can come up with.
WHY: This simple kit of interconnecting cardboard discs really stood out to our judges, many of whom had a go at building their own tent! Our panel felt that this would be a great activity for stimulating creativity and imagination in kids and loved the fact that once finished with, it could be passed on or recycled.
Standout – a brilliant idea beautifully executed!
Very original!
Anything that sparks imagination is brilliant for me!
WHERE: Noook
WINNER: JOINT BRONZE BEST ECO TOY DESIGN
WHO: Plan Toys Wonky Fruit & Vegetables
WHAT: A set of perfectly imperfect wooden veggies that are all made in two sections held together with Velcro pads. The veggies come with a wooden knife so kids can slice the two pieces apart like real chefs. The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) estimates that one-third of all the food in the world is wasted. For fruit and vegetables specifically, almost half of it will never reach our plate. One of the main causes for this is the extreme focus on the aesthetic appearance of produce. Enter Carl Carrot, Peter Pear, Adam Apple, Tammy Tomato Heart and Curly Cucumber!
WHY: This wooden toy set works on so many different levels: celebrating difference, encouraging healthy eating, promoting the enjoyment of home cooking and teaching kids that food doesn’t have to look perfect to taste delicious. Created in collaboration with social enterprise Kromkommer to help educate kids on food waste in a very fun way and made from sustainable biodegradable materials, this play set has wonderful eco-credential. Our judges were so excited about this toy and wrote in their notes:
Love plan toys and these are gorgeous
Yay to celebrating wonky fruit!!
The kids have started growing veg from seeds, so this is a great way of sharing how veggies come in all sizes and shapes wonky and all
WHERE: Plan Toys