Cutlery Project

Dino Dining

This is a render of my final design for a new range of children’s cutlery that are made to look like dinosaurs, in order to encourage children to eat.

Features

The fork features a sensor in the prongs, so when the fork is pressed into an item of food the speakers at the end of the handle will create dinosaur noises. It will be powered by a small battery also in the handle. It will ideally encourage children to eat with their fork as they will want to hear “the Dinosaur roaring.” I also thought a rubber grip would be useful as not all young children are aware on how to use a piece of cutlery correctly.

Formulating the idea

I started off this project by quickly brainstorming issues I would like to challenge when it comes to children eating. I knew most kids are very fussy when it comes to trying to feed them, especially healthy things. I wanted to create a piece of cutlery that would make eating more enjoyable and “fun” for young children.

Below was the start of my concepts. I tried as many different designs as I could possibly think of. 

I had lots of fun thinking of what I would have enjoyed when I was younger. I’m sure nearly every person was encouraged to eat as toddlers by their parents by ” here comes the plane” and “choo-choo” sounds, so this was the spark of my idea to have speakers implanted in the utensil that could either play music or make sounds.

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Ergonomic issues 

I looked at how children’s cutlery is designed currently, and realised usually have rounded edges, obviously for safety and the way kids fork ends are because I noticed how they can range to wide, short and blunt to thin, long and pointy.

< < I investigated ergonomic issues too, I watched how my nephew used his fork to eat and noticed how he held it clenched with his whole hand, I know toddlers don’t have the same level of hand co-ordination as adults

…..therefore I tried to come up with some solutions to this.

I had to look into the anthropometrics of a child as the cutlery I am designing wouldn’t be the same as your average size.

          

Favourite Designs 

Well, the first thought the occurred to me when thinking of children’s cutlery was animals. Most current designs for kid’s cutlery have animal tops or themes. So I thought I could change it up a bit by  having detachable ears’ to mix and match between sets

But then I thought this wouldn’t be very sensible as it would act more as a distraction than encouragement….

I remember having a ‘twirly’ straw, I loved watching the juice come up, when I first drew this design I had just thought of it having a spoon end but when I started to envision it I seen it using colour-changing plastic and then even adding even “whirring” noises as the liquid rose up the tube…

When I was investigating what makes children eat, I realised that most like nibbling and eating with their hands. so this is what led me to the finger cutlery. I thought i could add a little character to the set by making them into “finger puppets”

(To the right, was just myself trying to think of what kind of little puppet characters I could create, I was thinking Robots)

I didn’t find they worked very well…..

My favourite two designs of all were the “sounds” and “colour-changing” cutlery, so I decided to continue the rest of my ideas with these aspects to them..

I’m sure nearly every person was encouraged to eat as toddlers by their parents by ” here comes the plane” and

“choo-choo” sounds, so this was the spark of my idea to have speakers implanted in the utensil that could either play music or make sounds.

And here I thought of different ways I could add in the colour changing.

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• Led lights under clear plastic
• Lava lamp’ style under clear plastic
• Colour changing plastics

I also decided to stick with the animal themed flatware but instead of usual designs like zoo animals and pets, I went for an “under the sea” theme.

The fork and knife were no problem but the spoon proved me great difficulty in trying to find a sea creature that would fit the shape of one without looking odd. So I spent a little time looking a fish that curl..

 

My nephews OBSESSED with dinosaurs and i know a lot of other 3-6yr olds are aswell so i attempted drawing some dinosaurs and adding in the utensil part to see how i could mould them into cutlery..

My Final Designs