Press Release
BlindBox Wooden Game by Ufuk Bircan Özkan Is Granted the A' Design Award in Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design
Ufuk Bircan Özkan acknowledged for toys, games and hobby products design by the international grand jury of the 2013 - 2014 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 26, 2014 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the A' Design Award in the Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design category for BlindBox Wooden Game by Ufuk Bircan Özkan. The recognition forms part of the 2013 - 2014 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
What the A' Design Award Means
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 BlindBox Wooden Game
BlindBox is a wooden game which combines puzzles with memory games, and strengthens the feelings like hearing and touching. It is a turn based game for two players. The player who collects his/her own marbles before the other player wins. Horizontal drawers are moved by players to align the holes in the middle of them to create vertical paths for marbles to fall down.The game requires strategic thinking capabilities to block your opponent, a good memory for right moves and high attention to make out where your marbles move to.
About Ufuk Bircan Özkan
Born in 1986, Ufuk Bircan Özkan graduated from Middle East Technical University, Department of Industrial Design in 2009. He designed products for market-leading brands including Burosit, Grammer, TEMSA, Mercedes-Benz and MAN. Mostly focused on transportation seating and vehicle interior designs lately, Özkan explores the unexpected forms and wows the users at first sight. For more information please visit http://ufubo.design
Award Record
Ufuk Bircan Özkan is a winner of 1 A' Design Award, including this recognition.
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/32310
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/32310
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!32310
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/124181
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
- BlindBox Wooden Game
- Function
- Wooden Game
- Category
- Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design
- Discipline
- Industrial Design
- Industry
- Kids
- Colors
- Forest Green, Dark Green, Sienna, Black and Peru
- Images
- 5
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Ufuk Bircan Özkan
- Country
- Turkiye
- Recognition
- A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2013 - 2014
- Design ID
- #32310
Credits
- Image Credits
- Industrial Designer Ufuk Bircan Özkan, BlindBox, 2014.
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- BlindBox is a wooden game which combines puzzles with memory games. Because of the natural materials used, it strengthens feelings like hearing and touching. Players change the 3D maze in each move during the game in order to gather their own marbles. Players need to consider the position of their opponent's marble too, when making moves. Because of the unique game scenario, players may score for their opponents by causing their opponent's marble fall down first. Causing a marble to fall out of the structure requires the marble to start from top layer.
- Inspiration
- I wondered if I will be able to add a 3rd dimension to classic maze games. A static 3D maze would be boring as it would have just one solution; so I created one where users change the path in each turn. As it contains small parts, it is suitible for children aged over 6.
- Research
- User and market research es are done at the first stages of the esign studies. 3-dimensional gameplay, risk of scoring for your opponent and selection of the natural materials used in production are the results of these researches.
- Challenge
- The hardest part was checking the game against any bugs which will effect the gameplay. As far as I experienced, there are no bugs that allow cheating or stucking.
- Realization and Technology
- BlindBox can be produced by conventional production techniques as it requires basic geometrical shapes to be formed in wood, glass and steel.
- Operation and Interaction
- Placing the drawers randomly to the storeys, and marbles diagonally to the holes on top are the preperation stages of the game. One player plays with glass marbles and the other player plays with steel ones. Players can choose any classic method to select who will start. The aim is to collect your marbles before your opponent does. What you can do is to slide the drawers in turns in order to align holes in the drawers with the ones in the storey below to make marbles fall down. Because you don't see where the marbles are in the construction; you need to remember or guess their places by the help of the sounds they create when hitting the wooden drawers.
- Project Duration and Location
- The design was an old student project of mine from 2006 in Ankara. I revised it in Bursa in February 2014 to make it a commercial product.
- Specifications
- Proposed package dimensions are mm x mm x mm
- Keywords
- wood, game, puzzle, maze, turn based, marbles, sound
