Made good progress with the design of the instruments for 'Command Centre' last weekend. This was spurred on by a visit to Sandown Toy Fair in Esher, Surrey. I like to call it 'Research'. Sandown is a huge collection of fantastic toys, nice people selling them and a cash machine conveniently in the foyer. Now that's a dangerous combination! I must have spent four hours looking at hundreds of brightly-coloured objects until my eyes stopped working. My wallet took a beating too. I bought an interesting book 'Future Toys' which is packed with quality photos of space-related tin litho stuff, and a 1960's Japanese tin toy fighter plane that has great cockpit interior detail.
Looking at this stuff I suppose what I love about the artwork (on the toy and on the box) is that even if it is badly drawn/printed it has it's own charm, a kind of childlike innocence. It looks like children had designed and decorated these toys for themselves. Unfettered imagination. Wonderful.
