Platinum Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design · 2021
Piks Construction Toy
by Oppi
- A' Design Award 2021 Platinum Winner in Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design
- Awarded April 15, 2021
- CLIENT: Oppi
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 2,282,553
- Verification code 862405ED88 · Verify this award
About Piks Construction Toy
Piks is a construction toy designed for children between three and twelve years old. The set combines non-toxic silicone cones with solid beech wooden boards. The aim of the game is to build an original structure using all of the pieces without any of them falling down. The silicone cones hold the wooden boards in place, allowing many construction possibilities. Through balancing, children practice concentration, fine motor skills and decision making. Included cards suggest shapes to build, while free play is also encouraged.
Oppi®'s Piks Construction Toy, recipient of the Platinum A' Design Award in Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design, represents a thoughtful convergence of educational philosophy and considered material selection that positions this construction system within the broader tradition of developmental play objects. The design demonstrates remarkable restraint in its formal vocabulary, utilizing only two elemental components, smooth silicone cones in graduated sizes and natural beechwood planks, whose interaction possibilities multiply exponentially through creative combination. This reductive approach evokes the pedagogical principles established by pioneering educational toy designers who recognized that open-ended play systems foster deeper cognitive engagement than prescriptive alternatives. The chromatic selection appears deliberately calibrated to stimulate visual interest while maintaining sufficient sophistication to integrate harmoniously within contemporary domestic environments, suggesting awareness of the dual audience that educational products must address. Technical merit manifests in the precision engineering of the cone tips, which create stable yet adjustable contact points with the wooden planks, enabling constructions that challenge spatial reasoning and fine motor coordination while rewarding patience with increasingly complex architectural possibilities. The photographic documentation captures a moment of absorbed concentration that illustrates the design's capacity to sustain extended engagement, the child's careful placement gesture embodying the mindful interaction the system cultivates. Material choices reflect contemporary concerns with sustainability and sensory authenticity, the natural wood providing warmth and organic variation while the silicone offers durability and tactile distinctiveness. Viewers might contemplate how such considered design objects shape developmental experiences and what values are transmitted through the material culture of childhood.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Piks is a creative toy designed to develop children's concentration. The aim of the toy is simple: to create the most original structure by positioning all of the pieces without any of it falling down. The silicone holds the wood in place, allowing for a myriad of construction possibilities. Children explore then the intricacies of balance while decision-making, motor skills and imagination all come into play transforming the players into artists in a performance of concentration and skill.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Weight : 1.3 kg
Dimensions : 260 × 200 × 105 3m
Recommended age : 3- 12 years old - Tags
- toy, educational toy, concentration, open-ended toy
- Production Technology
- Non-toxic silicone
Solid Beech wooden boards - Design Challenge
- Are the children able to concentrate while playing? Can we learn concentration while having fun?
- Project Duration
- After a Research & Development phase of 3 years, Piks has been pre-launched on September 2018 and was officially commercialized in February 2019 in France. Since 2019 and 2020, Piks is distributed internationally.
- Operation Flow
- Attention & Concentration
Thanks to the playful, original combination of rubber cones and wooden plates, Piks offers kids the chance to explore the dynamics of balance and practice concentration through a fun activity.
Motor Skills & Learning Process
During the construction process, players develop their motor skills, overcome challenges and discover their personal aptitudes. Through "trial & error" Piks gives kids the opportunity to fail and try again, learning from mistakes, learning mistakes are OK they are just part of the process.
The more children play, the better they know how to play. It builds confidence as they enjoy building and increasing their motor skills.
Risk Taking, Decision Making & Emotional Control
Piks has endless construction possibilities! Thanks to the variety of pieces and shapes, but also thanks to its versatile construction possibilities, Piks enhances educational triggers such as: decision-making, risk taking and emotional discipline. As they build, kids need to decide which pieces to take; why should they take it for the construction balance, and where should they place it. A fun exercise using real objects but mostly using the mind!
Self-Esteem, Personal Achievement/Rewards & Constructive Pleasure
But why does Piks help kids feel better? Why is it fun? Construction has always been a great activity for kids (and adults too!). Our goal in creating a construction game is to allow children to feel the power and satisfaction of achievement. Each step of the way, the players are rewarded by the balancing they've accomplished and excited by how much further they can go.
A Meditative & Fun Activity To Do
As we planned, Piks is also a mix of a fun and calm activity. Through concentration, kids enjoy creative personal time playing alone or in a group.
Imagination & Creativity
There is more! Piks is a great catalyst for imagination too. The toy set includes cards to show kids several creative possibilities they can build and how to build them. Theses cards can be used as a complete exercise or a starting point. What's important is kids get creative and build whatever they want to express or imagine: a tower, parking, castle, animals, etc.
And let's not forget FUN!
With Piks, kids also express themselves and have fun while playing. After all, one of the greatest therapeutical process is when we have fun. - Research
- To makes children develop cognitive aspects through playing. We decided to seek inspiration and to base our design on behaviors research and needs; and mostly on ADHD.
One of the issues ADHD kids have (as well as some children in general too) is the lack of making decision in addition of the lack of being focused on the present moment. On our strategic collaboration process - composed by product designers, child psychiatrists and educational consultants - we decided to work on this matter deeply by offering the kids the chance to explore concentration and to force them to work on their abilities to be focused on a one task without being a complicated and frustrating exercise.
We also identified that some kids have a lack of confidence during the childhood phase. Through the experience of freeplay construction, we wanted to create a toy that has almost no rules, no "winners" and no "loosers". With Piks, the construction dynamic let the children decide how the construction will be. Thanks to this freedom of playing, there are no frustration and the toy become an tool that fits all ages and challenges that kids put to themselves.
Once we identified the two main educational direction and needs, we spitted our strategic designs directions based on the following goals:
Development of attention and concentration skills
Deepening fine motor skills
Increasing the decision-making
Increasing the risk-taking
Development of self-esteem thanks to a reward and pleasure feeling
Development of imagination and creativity
Development of social and collaborative skills / Group Cohesion (child(ren) with child (ren) child (ren) with adult (s))
Increasing the creative identity expression through play
To create a non-psychorigid and, conversely, a flexible construction tool/toy of multiple shapes and combinations. - Inspiration
- Piks has been designed thanks of two sources of inspiration: the collaboration with educational specialists and the need to provide kids new open-ended way to play. Because of our commitment to offer a toy that develops concentration skills, we decided to seek inspiration from the field of education, more precisely from kids' concentration disorders ADHD. By making design research - consulting child psychiatrists or occupational therapists - we were able to identity a list of the most important children's cognitive needs to increase.
- Image Credits
- Philippe Fragnière (Photographer)
Otus Production (Video) - Patents
- Copyrights belong to OPPI SAS, 2018
Trademarks belongs to OPPI SAS, 2018
Colors of Piks Construction Toy
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