The Curious Gastronaut Kartenspiel by Nalisha Chouraria

The Curious Gastronaut Kartenspiel by Nalisha Chouraria is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 A' Design Award in Eisen in Spielzeugdesign Competition Category.

EisenSpielzeug· 2020

The Curious Gastronaut Kartenspiel

by Nalisha Chouraria

Client: Nalisha Chouraria

A' Design Award in Eisen Winner in Spielzeug Category

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Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #104621

Visit Site View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

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The Design

About The Curious Gastronaut Kartenspiel

„The Curious Gastronaut“ ist ein Kartenspiel, das Kinder und Familien dazu einlädt, Lebensmittel spielerisch zu erkunden. Angeleitet von den Aufgaben auf illustrierten Karten sammeln die Spielenden Zutaten, kombinieren sie zu essbaren Experimenten in Häppchengröße, geben ihnen einen Namen und untersuchen sie mit allen fünf Sinnen. Anschließend werden Rezepte und Reaktionen bewertet und festgehalten. Das Spiel lässt sich mit echten Lebensmitteln oder rein in der Vorstellung spielen – solo, kooperativ oder kompetitiv. Da keine konkreten Gerichte vorgegeben sind, erfinden die Spielenden alles von Grund auf selbst. Die kompakte Schachtel ist ideal für kleine Hände und fürs Unterwegssein.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award in Eisen

The Curious Gastronaut Kartenspiel ist Gewinner des A' Design Award in Eisen, einer prestigeträchtigen Anerkennung für gute Designs, die die beruflichen und industriellen Anforderungen erfüllen, die an gut gestaltete Schöpfungen gestellt werden. Eisen-Gewinner zeigen großes Können, hohe Spezialisierung, fachkundiges Verständnis und die kreative Kapazität ihrer Schöpfer. Von The Curious Gastronaut Kartenspiel wird erwartet, dass es eine hochgeschätzte, bewunderte und geliebte Schöpfung ist, die praktisch und innovativ ist. Dieses mit dem A' Design Award in Eisen prämierte Design integriert bewährte Branchenverfahren und weist kompetente technische Merkmale in Verbindung mit Know-how und Talent auf. The Curious Gastronaut Kartenspiel wird für seine Gründlichkeit geschätzt und ist darauf ausgelegt, Verbesserungen der Lebensqualität zu liefern, die dazu beitragen, die Welt zu einem besseren Ort zu machen.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

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

Unique Properties: Explore the exciting world of food using the imagination, bite-size edible experiments & all 5 senses. Play with real food or without, the goal is to discover flavours, textures & combos that are out of this world! It inspires children & our inner child to be brave & curious, reinvents how families eat & encourages playful exploration beyond the game. Uniquely, it makes no mention of food items, & encourages players to reimagine food & experiment from ground up rather than from existing recipes
Dimensions & Packaging: Packaging (Box with a slip on lid): 120 x 170 x 50mm, 55x Ingredient Cards: 96mm, 4x Book of Curious Recipes (12 pages): 110 x 160mm, 1x Gameplay Handbook (12 pages): 110 x 160mm, 1x Gastronaut's Guide Card (double-sided): 85 x 120mm
Tags: Children's Design, Play, Kids, Imagination, Creative, Game, Interactive, Food, Family, Education
Production Technology: The game manifested into a physical card game perfect for collaborative play with potential for digitisation. It infuses play with dining in a natural way without becoming a distraction. It is portable and perfectly sized for little hands. The prompts are whimsical & humorous, the visuals - gender neutral & simplistic but not childish, with the intention to stimulate the imagination and trigger joy & curiosity. It's open-endedness allows for multi use, endless interpretations & high playability
Design Challenge: The project required all-round skills in design, illustration, writing and knowledge in play, child culture, food education, etc which I was able to build and improve through research and playtesting. Inspiring ongoing exploration while also motivating busy adults to play were additional challenges, which I overcame by introducing features like unlocking and journey maps, and by simplifying the gameplay into short, simple sessions.
Research: Using exploratory research, the objective was to foster healthy food relationships in children, through play. Methodologies include surveys & secondary source research. Data collected informed research tools, namely participatory experiments (observed workshops & self-reported trials). The results indicate that gamifying food is beneficial. Insight into the transformative nature of play suggests that it warrants further research. The effect overall is a whimsical food-exploration game
Inspiration: Kids can be suspicious of new food & often categorize it as 'yuck' even before trying it. Many foods remain unexplored & mealtimes are reduced to mundane chores. Kids use curiosity & play to explore the world so why not use it to explore the food world? The game is a culmination of my passion for food & specialisation in Children's Design. By bringing the benefits of play to the table, I wanted to inspire kids to be curious & take the first bite to possibly be rewarded with a surprising discovery
Project Duration: The project started in January 2015 in Gothenburg, Sweden and finished in January 2020 in Gold Coast, Australia. It was exhibited at HDK Academy for Design & Art in 2015 and was awarded best thesis project
Operation Flow: Following the prompts on beautifully illustrated cards, players use their imagination to gather ingredients, creatively combine them to create weird & wonderful bite-size edible experiments, name them & explore them together using all five senses. Finally, they rate and record their recipes & experiences. One can play with real food or imaginatively, with or without cooking and choose from solo, collaborative & competitive modes, to discover the exciting edible world on their own terms