The captivating world of Toy Design: How Patrick Rylands inspired children worldwide with award-winning Ambi Toys
"A toy that does everything by itself, does nothing for the child. The main purpose of a toy is to enable children to enter into a world of make-believe, as it is in this way that children relate to reality." - Patrick Rylands.
GRANTSVILLE, Md., May 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Born in 1942, world renowned toy designer Patrick Rylands has designed some of the most influential toys to date from PlayPlax to Ambi. Raised in Kingston upon Hull, UK, Rylands was the youngest person to have ever won the Duke of Edinburgh's Prize for Elegant Design; now known as the Prince Philip Designers Prize.
He first brought Ambi Toys to life in 1976 and the story behind this magical toy range is one that has perhaps gone full circle, for both Patrick Rylands and Galt Toys, who acquired the range at the beginning of 2013.
The Acquisition.
The distribution of Ambi has certainly changed hands over the years from Brio to Selegiochi and finally Galt Toys.
This wasn't the first time Galt Toys had taken on one of Rylands Rylands' toys; it actually started with PlayPlax, a set of coloured transparent polystyrene squares which interlock to create an infinite number of different structures. PlayPlax was originally owned by Trendon, a moulding specialist which used the toy to start its own toy division, and marketed it for about ten years. Sometime after the toy was eventually discontinued; and then Galt was licensed to produce it in their own packaging.
But we can all breathe a sigh of relief for the Ambi range, as its original design and basic colors is here to stay.
Through all the 'signings' of the Ambi range, Rylands kept hold of the mechanical drawings for each and every Ambi toy ever designed; a total of a 150 blueprints with only a handful ever failing to reach the manufacturing process.
"Four years ago I had sort of given up on design and moved out of the toy business and hadn't given Galt Toys a thought for 30 or so years," said Rylands. "Early in 2013, I was contacted by John McDonnell from Galt, who said, 'We own your product line'. He explained they had just bought Ambi and would like to meet to discuss the range. After several meetings, Galt Toys bought the drawings, so the Ambi range has not only expanded, but they have also reintroduced some of the old range."
Ambi's full 44 piece range based on Ryland's designs is now available in the U.S. for the first time.
PlayPlax: The Construction Story.
Born and brought up in Hull, Patrick Rylands studied ceramics and lithography for four years at Hull College of Art before going to the Royal College of Art (RCA). As well as working on studio pottery and industrial ceramics, Rylands gained enough experience in plastics to be aware of the basic requirements of designing with this material.
"I hated school," explained Rylands. "I attended a Catholic Grammar School and when I was about to leave my Art Master said, 'You might get into art school if you try' - the alternative was to join the police - I was the perfect height."
Rylands inevitably chose to study art at Hull College. "On average I spent six days a week there; it basically introduced me to 'living'. I took up the optional ceramics course, which meant we could attend on Saturday, and a group of us would sit around eating and drinking cider – my intro into being a social being!"
Rylands attended the Hull Regional College of Art from 1959-63, and then went on to study at the RCA, where he met his wife, a fellow student.
It was during this time that Rylands created an interlocking ceramic tile system, leading him to commission his first toy. Rylands got a friend to make up his design in wood, on a smaller scale, creating freestanding building units - a construction toy.
Seeing the potential, Rylands sent his drawings and a few others off to Naef Toys, in Switzerland, and two of Rylands's designs were commissioned and went into production. During 1963/4 the freestanding building units and then acrylic models became Playplax.
During his college vacation, he worked at Hornsea Pottery in Yorkshire, founded in 1949 by brothers Colin and Desmond Rawson. It was Desmond who introduced Rylands to Bryan Fisher, Managing Director of Trendon, a plastics company specialising in precision mouldings, in particular coffin handles.
Looking to expand, Mr. Fisher took the audacious step to diversify and put Playplax into production. Thanks to Playplax, in four years Trendon became recognised in the British toy industry for its design and innovation. The Design Council accepted many of the toys for its 'Design Index'.
Rylands sold Playplax on a royalty basis, and when the first check arrived while he was still at the RCA, it encouraged him to do more. He sold various designs to toy manufacturers with Trendon taking another four.
After leaving the RCA in 1969, he worked for a time as designer for a ceramics manufacturer in Stoke-on-Trent and taught at Hornsey College of Art before becoming a freelance designer two years later. Apart from his success with Trendon, Rylands also continued designing wooden toys for the Swiss company Naef and US company Creative Playthings (a subsidiary of CBS Broadcasting, Inc).
While he was in the US with Creative Playthings, he was told he'd been nominated for the Duke of Edinburgh's Prize for Elegant Design. In 1970, at the age of 27, Rylands became the youngest person ever to have won this prize. Playplax was the best known of the winning collection and in the first three years sold more than one million packs in 30 countries, becoming part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; a toy which was designed and manufactured almost by chance.
So why was PlayPlax so successful? Rylands remarks: "Toys should give children the freedom to play, and a child can come to grips with reality through fantasy. The 'less is more' principle probably applies more to toys than anything else, so a toy that does everything, does nothing for the child."
Timeless Toys: Bird and Fish
The design of the Bird and Fish bath toys for Trendon, contributed to the winning collection for the Duke of Edinburgh's Prize.
Bird and Fish are very simple smooth shapes in ABS plastics with only eyes for decoration, attractive to both adults and children, having a comforting tactile quality. Both bath toys contain internal ballasts keeping them upright in the water. In the opinion of the judges, Rylands designed a range of toys that amused, stimulated creative talent and were educational.
"The bird came first, based on Eskimo bone carvings in the British Museum," Rylands explained. "I did some drawings, thought it would make a nice toy and whilst teaching at Hornsey College of Art, I made a prototype from Plaster of Paris and decided he needed a friend and so I designed a fish – simple as that."
The timeless plastic toys are now icons in British design history, and like many of Rylands' toys are permanently on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood in London. In 2015, Bird and Fish were officially re-launched by Galt Toys and are now included in the full collection.
Why Plastic?
"Plastic has had a bad reputation," remarked Rylands. "Early plastics were generally of extremely poor quality and it took years to overcome the public prejudice against them. However, the versatility and mass producibility of plastics make them eminently suitable for all manner of playthings. Handled sensitively, they have their own excellent aesthetic."
"It may be argued that commercially available toys are not of prime importance. Play is the thing. Toys do, however, instigate, facilitate and encourage play. Also, along with the rest of humanity, children do like to own things."
Ambi Toys
In 1969 the brand Ambi Toys hit the market, originally known as Europlastics established in Holland by Simon Gompes and Herman Schpector. One year later, Rylands joined Ambi and worked exclusively on the toy range from 1976 to 2002.
Rylands was introduced to Simon Gompes at Nuremberg Toy Fair. At the time he was still freelancing and teaching, so the Ambi range was very slow to get off the ground, until 1976 when Rylands turned his attention solely to Ambi.
The Ambi Toys are best known for their primary colors, but the true wonder of Ambi is its conception. Rylands only ever worked from drawings, no prototypes, so in essence each toy came to life from mechanical paper drawings.
"It is an amazing thing bringing a toy to life," said Rylands. "Every Spring and Autumn we'd go to Italy to get the tools made to make the toys. At the time it was for us the most economical way of doing things, it would normally be at least six months from the initial drawing to seeing the product."
Rylands finds there is one particular stage of the process that keeps him inspired.
"It is the construction stage that really kept me designing," remarked Rylands. "The Ambi speciality 'one screw fits all' is an interesting discipline."
In 1999, Ambi Toys was sold to BRIO, who introduced the color black into the range with Peter Penguin and Cool Cat, both designed by Rylands. Also at this time, Rylands was elected as a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI), an honor introduced by the RSA in 1936 to recognise designers of excellence.
However Brio and Rylands soon parted company and, in 2003, the BRIO plant in Holland was shut down and production was moved to Dongguan, China. This strategy did not prove especially successful and in 2006 BRIO stopped marketing Ambi Toys altogether.
For the next three years the company lay dormant. In 2009, Selegiochi, an Italian toy retailer and importer, bought Ambi Toys and revived the brand back to its original splendor.
Ambi is now back on British shores, after Galt Toys acquired the brand in 2013, and continues on the principal vision that Rylands first started – high quality plastic toys, distinctive designs appealing to both infants and adults.
"The hardest thing when designing toys is inevitability, not profitability," remarked Rylands. "You often hear that there is a compromise between design and commerciality, but in reality if the product doesn't sell it will disappear. Great designs cannot be created in isolation; designers and manufacturers have to work together."
Galt Toys now works exclusively with Rylands, where they developed new packaging for all the products. They have also brought back four of Ryland's earlier designs into production, with all 44 pieces now available in the United States for consumers to purchase.
For more information on Ambi Toys, visit www.GaltToys.com.
SOURCE Ambi Toys by Galt
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