Bugs and Plush was a company created by a very talented graphic designer by the name of Carlos Morales and myself. This idea was born from our love of art toys and wanting to make a great national product, good enough to sell internationally and put Mexico on the map, when it came to art toys.
Not knowing the great adventure that stood in front of us, we went in head first with nothing to fear. Our very first task was redesigning the popular Mexican piggy bank. With this first process we were able to map out what it takes to produce a product from start to finish. As time went on, we were able to become more efficient and reduce production times.
Over the span of five years we designed from start to finish over nine different characters. Our process was the following:
Sketching – 3d modeling – 3d printing – silicone mold – wax mold – electro – formed nickel mold – rotational molding – pad printing – assembly
Initial Sketches
3D modeling in Rhino
All of our characters where modeled and printed to scale in order to make our prototypes.
Ball Point Pen
Paint Brush
Pencil
Fountain Pen
Body / Ink Bottle
Blue prints were made for each of the art toys. We used them in order to take into consideration the % that the molds shrink, this way our final dimensions were not affected. These Art Toys that you see here are not just for looks, since they also work as a functional pen.
Packaging
Each box was designed differently in order to fit the art toys in such a way that they where protected. The box had a window for you to see which toy was inside and a special base to limit the toys movement.
Different Materials used
Not wanting to box ourselves in we started to experiment with different materials and ended up creating some of our characters in different materials. With Bugs and Plush we where able to make Mexico proud and solidify my enthusiasm for product design.
Vinyl
