Designed by Will Nickley.

Original Concept Description: it's a rocking horse AND a hobby horse.

Intent of Redesign: Hattie loves Disney's Frozen, how might this rocking horse adopt that movie's aesthetic? 

Process: A first attempt used Midjourney to incorporate latent text prompts into a pencil sketch of the rocking horse concept. A second attempt took a similar approach with a photo of a small scale rocking horse prototype. 

Reflection: The AI generated image did not account for a key innovative feature of the original concept, i.e., the removable hobby horse function.

Designed by Brett Enders

Original Concept Description: A balancing flower toy that rolls on a central rattle ball.

Intent of Redesign: I just kind of wanted to see how the AI would interpret the original form and design of the toy. Instead of a total redesign, I wanted to see how the toy would look as a more plausible marketable design.

Process: I just threw in my sketches and pictures of my toy and see how different words affected the outcome of the image until i got what I wanted.

Reflection: I was nervous about it at first, but it's single-handedly helping me through my creative block so I can't hate it too much. The results I got are definitely great starting points for a bunch of alternate designs, it's just about making them function and have intention behind them.

Designed by Elise Aultman

Original Concept Description: A playful introduction to the garden to cultivate young minds.

Intent of Redesign: Through the redesign of Garden & Grow I hoped to bring some depth and character to the otherwise quite plain design.

Process: I started out by using one of my original digital models and playing around with different word combinations, some of which I pulled from my Garden & Grow poster. After some time, I managed to input a combination of words that resulted in changes I felt like complimented my design. Then I continued doing a bunch of iterations in hopes that the AI would start to hone in on the details. When this didn`t work as I'd hoped, I upscaled what I thought was the best version. Finally, I took this upscaled version into Adobe Fresco and sketched my own modifications to make the piece feel more cohesive.

Reflection: While I've been quite harsh on AI so far, I have to admit that I think it could helped me in my iterative process. I tend to get stuck in my head during this stage and (for better or for worse) using AI to generate inspiration did help free me from feeling paralyzed from having to make these decisions myself. For example, one of the AI generated versions on Slide 6 ended up included light elements, which was something Fisher-Price suggested we could explore that I initially did not. Ultimately though, even after generating multiple iterations for details, there are still many features that remain impractical so post-processing should not be overlooked. 

Another thing I discovered through this process, at least for me, is that AI is not so much suited toward rendering. While it can do really impressive renders, if a designer needs to produce something with specific details it can be very difficult to add over top of an AI render. Overall, I felt like using AI for the later stages of a project takes the control out of a designers hands and I personally don't like to feel that way.

Designed by Erin Shaw.

Original Concept Description: A worm went in circles when pulled.

Intent of Redesign: My goal was to explore other options of characters to use for the design. A few ideas were unicorns, cows jumping over the moon, rabbit being chased, etc. I wanted to explore these and different textures in my redesign. . 

Process: This process was a lot of trial and error, because the bot could not envision what I was thinking unfortunately. I kept trying different combinations of words to try and achieve what I wanted.

Reflection: I found myself using AI to help me iterate for the bike-rack project we are also doing in studio right now. It was quite useful, although I did not directly use any of the images generated, they for sure inspired me to go down the right path. It saved me time and helped me whenever I felt like I was in a creative block. I will likely continue using AI in the future to help aid in this process. I disliked  working on it in Photoshop to edit the final piece, I much prefer getting inspired by bits and pieces of multiple ideas then creating my own. I think just Photoshopping an already "done" piece was constraining. 

Designed by Harrison Dodd

Original Concept Description: When the top orange fin of the airplane is pulled flames roar out the back.

Intent of Redesign: Give it a fun and cool theme and turn it into a spaceship instead of plane. 

Process: I cropped a render of my toy design and uploaded it to imgur.  From there I got a link to the image.  I started off with the URL and "space rocket flames Fisher Price".  I didn't really like what that got me, so I decided to take the words "Fisher Price" out and I got much better results.  What I got was cool but not cool enough, so from there I put in "Lightning McQueen racecar speed cinematic" and I got some funky car rockets.  I did some iterations there, then decided to put "buzz lightyear spaceship" because my mind thought that was a good idea.  The results were pretty cool, so I did some variations, upscaled my favorite, then uploaded that to fresco and did some minor changes.

Reflection: AI actually has served to be a quite useful tool in the past few days.  For the studio project, we are working on a bike rack and I used ai a few times to get some inspiration.  The results it gave me were not even close to functioning bike racks but helped inspire some bike rack designs.  I can see myself continuing to use AI for inspiration in the future.  

Designed by Kayanaat Chaudhry

Original Concept Description: A galaxy-themed spatial environment that encourages gross motor development through a wall-mounted moving rocket and stationary planets and stars.

Intent of Redesign: For my redesign, I wanted to see my toy integrated into the room in a more dynamic way. In addition to this, I wanted to see the addition of other space-themed objects assorted on the walls for a more interesting environment. 

Process: I started with a rendering of my toy on the wall in a blank room. As I added it into Midjourney, I played with what words to add in order to get my intention across. I found that it was getting the general gist of a space-themed playroom but not of the toy itself so I had to add lots of descriptions and specifics about what I wanted and even after that, it was mainly plain. After this, I adjusted some of the odd parts and added the parts of the toy that weren't created in A.I using procreate to create a more complete image and toy. Final prompt: "galaxy themed playroom with lots of stars, planets, and other galactic themed toys on the the wall and around the room with a moving rocket on a track futuristic and playful"

Reflection: Overall, I think that A.I is a very fun and good tool for ideation and quick mock-ups but changing something that already exists into an image you have in mind is very difficult. I found it more beneficial when I did not know what I wanted my outcome to be. I also did not like how no matter how I drew, it didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the image in places. It seems a bit untouchable after the A.I renders it which bothered me. A.I was something I used to ideate for my studio project and I see myself using it in more ideation stages in the future. 

Designed by Emma Bergman

Original Concept Description: A collection of interactive modular toys that are stackable, attachable, and rollable.

Intent of Redesign: I wanted to turn my rollable wooden toys into floatable water toys. A.I. would have to change the material of my toys and I wanted to see how it would adapt them into water toys without too much direction.

Process: I didn't know how I wanted to change my toy design at first so I tried adding animation, animal and motion into MidJourney prompts. I didn't like anything I got. Then I thought about changing them into water toys. I added a few prompts with my original concept toy and had to repeat it a couple times to get a product I somewhat liked. It kept not getting the faces correct and making them creepy, along with connection of the rope. I, then, added the water background floating toys prompt to finally get some toys I could almost see in a bathtub. I added a a rope and some white highlights with Adobe Fresco for the final image.

Reflection: For me, personally, I find A.I. to be very exciting as far as iterations and getting the ball rolling form and concepts. It definitely has some fallbacks and I would never use it for solving the real problems of a design. I find it a little frustrating when it does not understand important components that make the design function or human. I think I will continue to use A.I. sparingly in the beginning stages of iterations to expand my mind on shape, form, color ways, and materials, but I would not find it much more useful further down in the design process.

Designed by Peter Maczuzak

Original Concept Description: Playing on the sense of touch, sight, and sound, this elephant pull toy comes equipped with noisemaker attachments to create a customizable instrument to make music that follows you around the house. 

Intent of Redesign: I wanted to test different materials like possibly having a plush elephant, and also expand on what could be rattled inside the tubes. I also wanted to test different stylized versions of my toy to see how Ai would interpret it.

Process: I started with a very simple prompt to see how the algorithm would see my image as a pull toy. It regurgitated a very colorful toy void of an elephant but it somehow managed to create a version with a set of eyeballs, one eye as a wheel, and the other at the end of the string. I realized I'd have to be more specific and started testing different keywords like "plastic" or "plush" to test materials and "fisher price" or "pixar" to test the style. A lot of times I would exchange words for their synonyms to see what Ai understood the most. I exchanged "knick knacks" for "figurines" and realized Ai was able to pick up on what I was trying to achieve much easier.

Reflection: When I began the process of editing the final image of my toy to combine elements that stood out to me among different Ai images, I thought, well, this is something Ai can't do. That sigh of relief was cut off by the realization that that's probably something Ai can do, and I'm the one who lacks the knowledge to know how. Could Ai have made the edits I did in Adobe Fresco? Probably. Would someone go and test the Ai algorithm to find out? Hopefully not. But, it does make me want to learn more about Ai, rather than cower from it so I can use it to my advantage knowingly.

Designed by Sharon Longdong

Original Concept Description: a ferris wheel toy inspired by the solar system

Intent of Redesign: I aimed to include more elements that related to space.

Process: Using Midjourney, I started by trying out different images from my toy project. I found that a front view with the colors included translated the original idea the best. From there, I put in words related to space and words about the toy, like ferris wheel or toy.

Reflection: When first working with AI, I originally thought that it would only be good for early exploration of ideas. After this assignment, I still believe that is true. I would use AI if I didn't have any specific ideas for a concept. However, since I already had an idea of what I wanted this redesign of my toy to look like, it was difficult for me to try to use AI to do exactly what I was looking for. It was really interesting to see how similar yet different the AI interpreted my prompt without any images of my toy.

Designed by Eason Chen.

Original Concept Description: A rattling pull toy inspired by boba tea. 

Intent of Redesign: My goal was to make my boba car more like a toy tank. I wanted to see the straw/barrel fire pearls/boba. 

Process: The exploring and searching process is very frustrating for me. I started by trying different images of my original design. I found that it is better to use real photos instead of sketches, and the front view is better than any other angle. I tested many combinations of keywords, but the results were still far from what I imagined.  

Reflection: Overall, I think AI is an enjoyable and exciting tool for iterations and ideations. Whether it is because of the keywords I typed or because the AI doesn't understand what I want, I can't get the result I expected. However, I still think it will be a useful tool for inspiring ideas since the outcomes generated by AI are very diverse and sometimes beyond my expectations. 

Designed by Morgan Brown

Original Concept Description: How can I incorporate mechanisms and a toy sorting play experience into a whimsical toy that mimics a fairy graden.

Intent of Redesign: To better understand how AI would interpret my ideas as well as to see how image prompts guide the final outcome.

Process: Since I had never used an image prompt in Midjourney before, I started with really simple prompt words to experiment with how much the application would actually change the image I supplied. I found out that it was hard to change things like the background and the people within the image. On the other hand it proved quite easy for the software to change the form of the toy itself. With my first image, it turned my simple drawing of my toy into toys that looked like space ships, moon rovers, beach toys, fiary cottages, and more. This variability led me to chose another image that was an actual image of my built toy. With this I found that Midjourney was much better at keeping with the original intent and vibe of my toy, and I ended up creating my final render quite quickly.

Reflection: While I'm still hesistant to give AI much weight as a designer, I will say that it was quite cool to see my somewhat reudamentary contruction and simple drawing turned into such intersting things. I think if I was still in the toy design process it would be really helpful to see these outputs and they could definetly inform my final idea if I was still working on this assignment. 

Designed by Mark Celestina.

Original Concept Description: The turtle head pops in and out of the shell when the toy is pulled.

Intent of Redesign: The intent of redesigning the Timid Turtle using AI was to have a more textured/plush representation of the final toy.  Additionally, I wanted to explore different representations of key features, such as the face, shell, and arms.

Process: I started this process by uploading my concept image to Mid-journey, and added key words to impact the texture.  I used words like 'plush', 'pattern', 'texture', 'plastic/hard' to alter the materiality of the turtle, while also using 'fisher price', or 'toy' to change the overall appearance.

Reflection: I think that I will continue using Mid-journey, as it is extremely helpful during the ideation phase of designing.  It offers different materials and joinery that would otherwise not be thought out.  Similarly, it also alters the overall look without changing the fundamental idea.

Designed by Emily Straughn

Original Concept Description: A toy for exploring new coral-themed textures. 

Intent of Redesign: To push the complexity of  my design without losing the crochet texture.

Process: At first I wasn't sure if the theme of my original toy would be too ambiguous for the AI to pick up on, and I was especially curious about how it would handle crochet. I think it processed the crochet texture and the tentacle/coral elements accurately, so I didn't change the prompt too much. I mainly used the same prompt to produce more variations, looking for results that reflected the organic form of my original design. Then I took the iteration I liked most and edited it in Sketchbook. I drew on top of the bits of plastic components I didn't like, changed some colors, and softened the sharp edges in the background. 

Reflection: I enjoyed this process because it showed me how AI can be used to exaggerate a design to an extreme that I would never think of. The results aren't always practical to produce, but its nice being able to almost converse with AI in order to push the iteration process forward.

Designed by John Paul Kuepper

Original Concept Description: Pull Toy based on a common basilisk lizard that can run across the surface of the water. The Toy is designed to only stand upright when in motion. 

Intent of Redesign: The intent of the redesign was to design it in a futuristic way but "future" as seen and imagined in the pre-1960s. Also, known as "retro-futurism".  

Process: For the first few I added the word "Jetsons" as a visual style reference but the AI seemed to focus on that too much and just made spaceships and nothing that resembled my toy. I removed "Jetsons" and just added more descriptive details to get the final result. 

Reflection: After this exercise, I'm even more convicted that AI should never be used to produce final results. Throughout the process, the AI was not able to make exactly what I was looking for. AI serves much better as a visual reference.

Designed by Beibei Wang

Original Concept Description: A sharing toy that allows kids to learn how to share and play with others.

Intent of Redesign: The redesign intended to develop the toy's exterior to a more playful look. 

Process: I uploaded my project photo and drawing to determine how well the AI could understand my design by adding words from less to more and trying to find one composition I wanted. I also tried many pictures and drawings of my project with detailed descriptions.

Reflection: AI, to me this time, is very challenging to represent what I wanted to redesign my work. I tried many pictures and drawings of my project, but AI did not really understand it. AI should only use for referencing, and there are more spaces for AI to enhance.

Designed by Jude Gill

Original Concept Description: A caterpillar shaped xylophone that plays itself when pulled

Intent of Redesign: remove the emphasis of being a pull toy, and make it a standalone caterpillar toy/instrument  

Process: In my process, I specifically stated that I wanted this to be a toy, but never mentioned it being on a string or having a way to move. The AI picked up on it having wheels regardless, but interestingly ended up turning them into a type of tread that I really liked and decided to keep. 

Reflection: I am further convinced from this that AI has no place in my own design process. It is not a tool I enjoy using or like the results of.  

Designed by Gage Kime.

Original Concept Description: The pull toy that scoops up items and crawls over diverse terrain.

Intent of Redesign: to make the toy more realistic and represent a construction truck more. Then to create that to look more like a toy. 

Process: Continued with midjourney, I started by asking for a realistic photo to make my inserted toy look real. I then rean into the problem of the AI not understanding how to add a good front shovel. I continued to make take the closest thing I could get and turn that into a kids toy and comtinued to try and add a shovel. 

Reflection: The AI had a difficult time trying to interpret what I wanted it to do. I believe that it could not understand putting a big front shovel on a real construction truck as well as other words possibly over powereing others. Also, it never could understand how to break up the bed of the truck into separate parts so that they could move like in my model.

Designed by Dedié Adissem

Original Concept Description: Meet Caterpal, the toy friend that slinks along. Cute, friendly, and fun.

Intent of Redesign: The goal I had in mind for the redesign was creating a more cute and playful design that communicates the visual details more clearly.

Process: So I first used  the imgur website to upload my photos online to then have a link to place into Midjourney to reimagine my toy from the orginal final product. I was messing around with the program having the AI imagine my toy in a more photorealistic way and improving the overall look and aesthethic of the original.

Reflection: I saw a use for AI in this assignment giving inspriration for possibilities besides my orginal design.

Designed by Mark Boyd

Original Concept Description: Burger Bus, a great way to encourage your kids to play with their food in a safe and active way. Allowing for customization and interaction in every piece.

Intent of Redesign: My goal in this redesign was to create a product that really came to life. my original piece was stagnant and lifeless so I wanted to change that. 

Process: My process in this piece felt a little roundabout at times. I began with simple descriptors and a couple of my product photos. Through the process i found that any word or image changes would alter the outcomes in various ways. Often these alterations were hard to predict, which made it hard to feel like i was moving forward at times. I ended up with a lot of blue buns and cursed looking burgers. With a large range of variations i was able to get a final prouct still held my original intent. Thus i ended up with a dynamic and playful final. 

Reflection: I feel as though  it will impact my journey as a designer in a range of ways. I have already felt its prescense through my process in another project. I found that it does a great job making things that arent real or simply don't exist. In doing that I feel like it doesn't matter whether or not a thing will work is not the goal of the AI. The goal is to blurt out an image based on algorithms. I do appreciate the help it can provide when in creative ruts, but I have faith it won't take my job.