Vilac’s Container Ship for the Baby Modernist

Design We Love | The Badass and the Beautiful

Vilac’s Container Ship for the Baby Modernist

It was only in the early part of the 20^th century that there evolved an entire philosophical and psychological approach to the design of children’s toys. Most recently this was explored in the stunning 2012 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Century of the Child: Growing By Design 1900 – 2000.

The idea that toys could be attractive, and even artistic is one that is distinctively modernist. By the 1920’s, German and Scandinavian designers, architects, and artists began experimenting with new ways of designing “play”.

We’ve always loved the purity of design that is inherent with classic wood toys, whether Kay Bojesen’s iconic monkey or early works from Frank and Theresa Kaplan’s Creative Playthings, such as the “Rocking Beauty” (both part of MoMa’s permanent collection.)

Vilac layout

Founded in 1911, The French toy company Vilac is renowned for its cheerful array of wooden toys that are too beautiful to hide in a toy chest.

A brilliantly colored container ship is the latest addition to Vilac’s collection, with its mosaic of cargo blocks rendered in navy, green, white, yellow and red. For us, it was love-at-first-sight: the rich colors, the novel use of building blocks, and the bold typography that delivers an authentically “vintage” industrial vibe.

{Founded in 1911, The French toy company Vilac is renowned for its cheerful array of wooden toys that are too beautiful to hide in a toy chest. }

Vilac toys are made from sustainably farmed wood from the Jura Mountains in France, which is also the location of the company’s headquarters in Moirans-en-Montagne.

Their newest piece, however, wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the creative spark that occurred when executives from CMA-CGM, the world’s largest container shipping company (and also French), crossed paths with the heads of Vilac.

Together, they hatched the idea of making a co-branded toy.

“The design & development team at Vilac created a prototype that was decorative and artistic yet playable too,” says Estelle LaCroix, Vilac’s export manager.

{ For us, it was love-at-first-sight: the rich colors, the novel use of building blocks, and the bold use of typography that delivers an authentically “vintage” industrial vibe. }

“At first, this small, co-branded product was only shown to various executive groups within the CMA-CGM Company, and then given as gifts to high-ranking personalities in France and various people around the World.”

Which “high profile personalities”? Our imagination toys with the the sight of Catherine Deneuve or Nicolas Sarkozy pushing their cargo ship across the living room carpet. Nevertheless, suddenly there was overwhelming demand for a toy that was never officially meant for the retail market.

“No one, neither at Vilac nor CMA-CGM predicted the huge demand there would be for this new toy,” says LaCroix. The stock was so depleted that there was no way they could complete any orders in time for Christmas 2015.

But now it’s back and next month it will be available here in the United States. Order yours now… before they’re gone.

> >The Vilac “Porte Conteneurs” will be available beginning May 1, 2016, at the following specialty retailers.

Bonjour Petit

BonjourPetit.com

844.369.1119

(online only)

Norman & Jules Toy Shop

158 7th Ave

Brooklyn, NY 11215-6633

http://normanandjules.com/

347.987.3323

The Red Balloon