Drago Artistry Toy Dragon by Yuhe (Donna) Chi

Drago Artistry Toy Dragon by Yuhe (Donna) Chi is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 Bronze A' Design Award in Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design Competition Category.

BronzeToy· 2020

Drago Artistry Toy Dragon

by Yuhe (Donna) Chi

Client: Donna Chi

Bronze A' Design Award Winner in Toy Category

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Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #86491

View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Drago Artistry Toy Dragon

Drago is a collectible toy dragon made for display in interiors. Each figure is 75 millimetres tall and draws on the ancient Chinese dragon, a creature that combines traits of fish, snake and eagle. The collection includes six styles and twelve looks. Every piece is digitally modelled and printed in white PLA with layers of 0.1 millimetre. After printing, each figure is polished, sprayed with a top coat, hand-painted with acrylic colours and finished with a further glossy coat. The design offers adult toy lovers a decorative tabletop ornament.

The Recognition

About the Bronze A' Design Award

Drago Artistry Toy Dragon is a Bronze A' Design Award winner, a highly prestigious recognition granted to outstanding designs distinguished by creativity, ingenuity, and astuteness. Bronze winners are amply skillful and strikingly creative artifacts that authenticate the vast experience, imagination, and resourcefulness of their designers. Drago Artistry Toy Dragon is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished object that is notably professional and innovative. This Bronze A' Design Award-winning design incorporates best practices in art, science, design, and technology, and is excellent for its attention to detail. Drago Artistry Toy Dragon splendidly satisfies needs, touches desires, charms feelings, and appeals to curiosity.

Image Analysis

Color Temperature: WarmSymmetry: Both DirectionsBackground: Left and Right

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: Dragois a modern collection based on a dragon figure. It was made for interior design and collecting, It is 3 inch in height and all hand-painted. The detailing craftsmanship create a playful sensibility. In this collection, it has six different styles and twelve looks.
Dimensions & Packaging: 75mm x 75mm x 75 mm
Tags: Toy design, collective toy, modern, decoration, pop culture, dragon
Production Technology: Drago is digitally constructed and then used 3D printing method to print. It is printed with white PLA with 0.1mm thick layers. After printed, it had been polished and sprayed with a top coat. All the details were hand-painted with acrylic and then top with another shining coat.
Design Challenge: The key challenge to the product was to create a shape that looks cute and modern. Another challenge is to create a pattern that can perfectly fit in the shape and add playfulness to it, because the shape is irregular and I want to keep the feature of a dragon but also add some interesting pattern in it.
Research: Nowadays there are not much toys designed for adults. I want to design a series of toy that can be collect by modern toy lovers. Modern toy has become an iconic art platform to bring artistry to the public eye, and a fusion of pop-culture and illustration is expected to inject vitality into the modern toy. So I designed a toy that involved in varies color and pattern, I hope this bold design, can be recognizable and evoked people’s love of pop-culture.
Inspiration: Ancient Chinese dragon is a combination of great deals of animals, including fish, snake and eagle. I got my inspiration from this interesting concept. Through mixing and matching of the characteristics that I discovered in the animal world, I created my own dragon. Each Drago have a story to tell.
Project Duration: The project started in February 2019 in New York and finished in May 2019, and was exhibited in New York in May 2019.
Operation Flow: This toy is a whole piece. It can be used for decorating home or use as a beautiful tabletop ornament.
Image Credits: Donna Chi, 2019