BLÅVINGAD ocean toy collection brings children's perspectives ashore

An image of life under the sea ready to be coloured, a fishing game with a purpose, and a selection of bright, huggable ocean animal soft toys. These form part of BLÅVINGAD, a collection from IKEA that carries an important message: to care for the ocean. Magnus Thuvesson and Jorge Santoyo Henaine at IKEA share how an expert panel of children helped develop the collection – and how their concerns for the ocean were woven into its very fabric.

Even when you pull something from your imagination, people can't tell you for sure that's not how it is – and that's key for many kids.

"My worries about the ocean are environmental issues, and I feel that many people now litter", says a boy from China.

"The amount of garbage in the oceans worries me very much, and that people don't care", says a girl from Germany.

"The rising amount of garbage is causing increasing harm, and more things need to be done!" says a girl from the United Kingdom.

They’re all among the more than forty children in Germany, China and the United Kingdom that form the Kids Advisory Panel for IKEA. And they’re just a few of those who voiced their concerns about the amount of plastic and litter found in and around oceans.

"We saw how much the kids cared about the environment in the ocean, and we were inspired to share the message", says Jorge Santoyo Henaine, Product Design Developer of toys at IKEA.

We saw how much the kids cared about the environment in the ocean, and we were inspired to share the message.

The potential of fun and play always takes centre-stage in the development of a toy, and if you ask Jorge, it's an assignment that can be as tricky as it is fun. Insights and feedback from children tend to be the key that unlocks much in the process. For BLÅVINGAD, it was the panel's concern for the ocean that sparked ideas that would eventually flow into everything from game and character development to material choices.

"It would be very easy to make a book in different languages about the problem with plastic and trash in the ocean, but here we try to communicate the message in the products, without words. Like in the fishing game", Jorge explains, referring to a colourful fishing and sorting game in the collection.

"It's a really fun, simple game all in wood and cardboard, but it has a really important message, without any text: clean the ocean!"

In fact, all the hard toys in BLÅVINGAD are made completely without plastic, as is the packaging, adding a subtle point to the overall message. A slightly less subtle one can be found in the flat-packed submarine made of wood and its sturdy crew of plywood figurines made from DUKTIG kitchen production residue.

"It's a cool crew that studies and takes care of the ocean", Jorge says enthusiastically. He points to a section of the BLÅVINGAD colouring paper roll and proudly states: "Look, you can even see them picking up trash in the ocean here."

For the softer side of the collection, the influence of a panel of small experts is perhaps most obvious in the selection of animals. The dolphin was most often chosen as a favourite ocean animal across the panel, described as "beautiful", "clever", and "really friendly with humans" among other kind things. Whales, sharks and turtles closely followed. Almost all can be found in huggable soft toy versions with BLÅVINGAD, with the one exception already being a familiar friend in the running range named BLÅHAJ.

But there was another inspired development in BLÅVINGAD soft toys that isn't quite as visible to the naked eye.

"We always have recycled filling in our soft toys already but doing something around how kids care about the environment made us ask ourselves: how can we push for more sustainability here?" says Jorge.

The answer: trying for recycled polyester in the skin as well. Which turned out to pose quite the challenge, seeing as not least the outside of a soft toy must stand the tough test of cuddles and play – and an elaborate testing process at IKEA before that.

"We got materials that were behaving really well with the right hand feel and everything, but it would be terrible after washing", Jorge recounts. "There was a high bar here because we needed it to behave the same as virgin materials. I don't know how many times we tried, but finally, we got it right."

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