Meet Katia Gamberini, design blogger from tatakidsdesign

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Do kids need design?

Yes they do. I feel sure that designing for kids is even more difficult than designing for adults. It won’t be enough to take grown-up projects and dumb them down. In my opinion kids furniture have to be designed to encourage interaction, they have to be playful and most of all safe. They would have to reflect kids ever-changing tastes and they must be designed in order to let kids use them over and over in different configurations as their tastes and needs evolve.

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How well can spacial structures stimulate children’s creativity and imagination?

There are furniture pieces that are able to nurture kids’ creativity thanks to different factors. Some of them are easy to assemble and disassemble and do not need any tool. Some others are simple in form or combine functionality with a twist of surprise. Sometimes the material they are built with can foster creativity in kids. For example cardboard can stimulate creative thinking as kids can use colours and draw on it. Don’t forget that kids do most of their activities in their rooms (they read, play, sleep etc) so it’s important to have an environment that is comfortable, personalised and that inspires them.

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What can designers learn from kids?

Adults see things in a conditioned way. Kids have no expectations, no mold, they are natural inventors, while adults sometimes are not able to break down their own creative barriers. Designers could learn to be more spontaneous, and to embrace unexpected scenarios.

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Can you remember your favorite toy that you had as a child?

A doll called Camilla, la bambola col passaporto (Camilla, the doll with passport). She came with me to different places (France, Moscow, and so on).

What games or with which toys do you most like to play together with your kids?

I love playing jigsaw puzzles, card games, contructions. We also love to play outside, as we live in the countryside.

What is essential for every kid’s room?

A  lot of light and space to fill of good toys and pieces of furnitures!

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And last, but not least: tell us more about your blog tatakidsdesign.

“Ta.Ta. Unconventional Design for Kids” is a project that came in on tiptoes at a rear of much more ambitious projects. A virtual and concrete space for the exchange of ideas at the same time. “Ta.Ta. Unconventional Design for Kids” wants to be a creative jar, a project starting from design which aims to expand into other areas, in order to explore the unconventional, multi-faceted and kaleidoscopic world of children. Ideas are created involving readers in an exchange of skills and knowledge in order to create synergies and collaborations. “Ta.Ta.”, two syllables, separated by a dot. A simple word to pronounce and to remember not only by an Italian child, but even by an English one, because “ta ta” is also a British nursery version of ‘goodbye’ playfully used by children … bye bye … ta ta …

www.tatakidsdesign.com