Thomas & Friends
Overview
Role: Senior Designer & Project Designer
Objective: Design Thomas and Friends toys for multiple categories: My First Thomas, Minis, Thomas Take-n-Play/Adventures (die-cast) and Trackmaster.
Solution: Become an expert on the Thomas brand and create designs that are faithful to the content while appealing to fans, kids and parents. Identify how to make each line of Thomas distinguishable and meaningful.
My First Thomas
The 12-18 month line of Thomas was difficult to distinguish from the other segments of the brand. For this reason, I led the charge on a redesign of the aesthetic for it. This led to an updated face and body style, a new color palette and new interactive track system. The cuter version of Thomas made the brand more approachable for customers who were not already familiar with it and continues to be an influence in the design of new media.
Thomas Minis
The Mini Thomas line was a collectible line intended for a slightly older consumer, being less traditional and more focused on stunt driven sets and wild DIJ paint finishes.
Thomas Adventures
Thomas Adventures comprised the die-cast segment of Thomas and featured the cast of characters in both traditional sets and fantastical environments. While working on this segment, I helped to retrofit the characters to a new chassis system we developed to unify functionality across different track types.
Thomas Trackmaster
Trackmaster is the motorized segment of the toy brand and I worked on retailer exclusive and custom items. This entailed reusing a lot of existing parts to hit aggressive margins, but simultaneously finding ways to add exciting elements by way of inventor mechanisms, special finishes and limited tooling.
