The Curious Gastronaut Interactive Game by Nalisha Chouraria Is Granted the A' Design Award in Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design

Nalisha Chouraria acknowledged for toys, games and hobby products design by the international grand jury of the 2019 - 2020 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 22, 2020 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the A' Design Award in the Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design category for The Curious Gastronaut Interactive Game by Nalisha Chouraria. The award was conferred within the 2019 - 2020 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

The A' Design Award Explained

The Iron A' Design Award is awarded to good designs that meet the rigorous professional and industrial standards set by the A' Design Awards. This recognition is reserved for works that demonstrate a solid understanding of design principles and show creativity within their execution. Recipients of the Iron A' Design Award are acknowledged for their practical innovations and contributions to their respective fields, providing solutions that improve quality of life and foster positive change. These designs are a testament to the skill and dedication of their creators, showcasing their ability to address real-world challenges through thoughtful design.

About The Curious Gastronaut Interactive Game

The Curious Gastronaut is a card game that invites children and families to explore food through play. Following prompts on illustrated cards, players gather ingredients, combine them into bite-size edible experiments, name them and examine them with all five senses. Recipes and reactions are then rated and recorded. The game can be played with real food or purely through imagination, in solo, collaborative or competitive modes. No specific dishes are named, so players invent from the ground up. The compact box suits small hands and travel.

About Nalisha Chouraria

Nalisha Chouraria is a multidisciplinary designer and illustrator who specialises in play & design for children. She creates unorthodox tools to stimulate and empower children, and encourage them to step out of their comfort zone through play. Her work includes illustration, play design, graphic design, event design, and digital & physical toys and games. She brings the child's perspective into her designs through research, playtests, observation, interviews & workshops. As well as working with a suite of award-winning studios, Nalisha has had utterly unique life experiences, including being a Bollywood child actor and marrying a tree.

Award Record

This recognition makes Nalisha Chouraria a winner of 1 A' Design Award.

About the A' Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design Award

The A' Toy Design Award is an international toy design competition recognizing good toy designs by best toy designers, manufacturers and brands worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to toy designers, game studios, industrial designers and hobby product manufacturers from all countries. Typical entries include dolls, action figures, board games, puzzles, plush toys and educational toys. The awarded toy designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/toy

About A' Design Award & Competition

Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/104621
A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/104621
Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!104621
Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/272151
Further Information from the Laureate: https://www.studiooddball.com/

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project: The Curious Gastronaut Interactive Game
Function: Interactive Game
Category: Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design
Discipline: Industrial Design
Industry: Kids
Colors: Light Sea Green, Goldenrod, Sandy Brown, Dark Slate Gray and Dark Green
Images: 5

The Recognition

Laureate: Nalisha Chouraria
Country: Australia
Recognition: A' Design Award
Edition: 2019 - 2020
Design ID: #104621

Design Details

Unique Properties: Explore the exciting world of food using the imagination, bite-size edible experiments & all 5 senses. Play with real food or without, the goal is to discover flavours, textures & combos that are out of this world! It inspires children & our inner child to be brave & curious, reinvents how families eat & encourages playful exploration beyond the game. Uniquely, it makes no mention of food items, & encourages players to reimagine food & experiment from ground up rather than from existing recipes
Inspiration: Kids can be suspicious of new food & often categorize it as 'yuck' even before trying it. Many foods remain unexplored & mealtimes are reduced to mundane chores. Kids use curiosity & play to explore the world so why not use it to explore the food world? The game is a culmination of my passion for food & specialisation in Children's Design. By bringing the benefits of play to the table, I wanted to inspire kids to be curious & take the first bite to possibly be rewarded with a surprising discovery
Research: Using exploratory research, the objective was to foster healthy food relationships in children, through play. Methodologies include surveys & secondary source research. Data collected informed research tools, namely participatory experiments (observed workshops & self-reported trials). The results indicate that gamifying food is beneficial. Insight into the transformative nature of play suggests that it warrants further research. The effect overall is a whimsical food-exploration game
Challenge: The project required all-round skills in design, illustration, writing and knowledge in play, child culture, food education, etc which I was able to build and improve through research and playtesting. Inspiring ongoing exploration while also motivating busy adults to play were additional challenges, which I overcame by introducing features like unlocking and journey maps, and by simplifying the gameplay into short, simple sessions.
Realization and Technology: The game manifested into a physical card game perfect for collaborative play with potential for digitisation. It infuses play with dining in a natural way without becoming a distraction. It is portable and perfectly sized for little hands. The prompts are whimsical & humorous, the visuals - gender neutral & simplistic but not childish, with the intention to stimulate the imagination and trigger joy & curiosity. It's open-endedness allows for multi use, endless interpretations & high playability
Operation and Interaction: Following the prompts on beautifully illustrated cards, players use their imagination to gather ingredients, creatively combine them to create weird & wonderful bite-size edible experiments, name them & explore them together using all five senses. Finally, they rate and record their recipes & experiences. One can play with real food or imaginatively, with or without cooking and choose from solo, collaborative & competitive modes, to discover the exciting edible world on their own terms
Project Duration and Location: The project started in January 2015 in Gothenburg, Sweden and finished in January 2020 in Gold Coast, Australia. It was exhibited at HDK Academy for Design & Art in 2015 and was awarded best thesis project
Specifications: Packaging (Box with a slip on lid): 120 x 170 x 50mm, 55x Ingredient Cards: 96mm, 4x Book of Curious Recipes (12 pages): 110 x 160mm, 1x Gameplay Handbook (12 pages): 110 x 160mm, 1x Gastronaut's Guide Card (double-sided): 85 x 120mm
Keywords: Children's Design, Play, Kids, Imagination, Creative, Game, Interactive, Food, Family, Education