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As the Museum is part of the V&A, the National Museum of Art and Design, you can imagine we spend a good deal of our time talking about what this means. This has led me to thinking about how we might influence different designs for kids. This, of course, is based on a complex economic model and so forgive me if this is a rather simplistic view, or does history tell us differently? 

A number of things have happened recently that have influenced my thought: firstly, a major chain selling a children’s bedroom furniture range called “Lolita” without realising the connotations, secondly the production of a new “playboy bunny” range which includes a thong designed for a 6-8 year old girl. My first response might be to say, “Outrageous, what is the industry thinking of?”, but it may quickly move on to “Who buys this stuff?”, after all it’s a market economy isn’t it? I can see before my eyes the headlines on the “sexualisation of girls” or the “loss of childhood”, which periodically rear their head and disappear again. But so far I feel there has been no sustained response from us as consumers, as there has been with the green agenda or organic food etc, and yet the designer and supplier are dependent on our willingness to buy. Why can we not speed up change in the products we see for our kids? Especially as there are some really positive signs from the toy industry. They have been rattled in the last year by the problem of production in China with both magnetic toys and lead content in paint. This has meant a focus on increasing quality control, which can only be good for the consumer but there are other signs; more environmentally friendly packaging for example (which in some instances will mean less time to get the toy out of the box if nothing else!) but also ranges of games and toys which go back to learning basics whilst still encompassing the best of new technology, for example those that don’t need batteries or teach sharing skills. In my view good design doesn’t mean boring design, and I think the industry is ready for a new kind of dialogue with its customers. However, this will only work if we make consistent and specific demands, and work with the industry to increase the pace of change. Who is with me?