Dr. Hakan Gürsu’s award-winning Creative Wooden Creatures

His environmentally friendly and visionary works are introducing unusual solutions to common problems

Industrial Designer Dr. Hakan Gürsu has come up with a series of wooden toys – named Creative Wooden Creatures – allowing children the opportunities to create their own imaginative creatures.

In his career, he has succeeded as an extraordinary illustrator, designer and intellectual internationally. His firm Designnobis has been selected among Turkey’s Top 40 Entrepreneur Firms.

Creative Wooden Creatures kit allows children to create a wide range of animals by combining various body parts.

He’s been honored in the world’s prestigious design competitions by winning over 205 design awards within 13 years and made Turkey rank second in the design field.

Designed for children above the age of 5, it is a universal toy that children from different cultural backgrounds get to learn and discover animals of land and sea while also designing their own creatures.

Creative wooden creatures offers a wide range of possible creations — The Creative Wooden Creatures kit offers a varied range of possible creations, for example, starfish, tortoise, ant, caterpillar and much more

Challenge was to design a toy kit that offers unlimited possibilities for building bodies with simple, organic forms that foster creativity and perception of aesthetics.

For a toy kit that is environmentally friendly and has the potential to become a classic, entertaining and educative, Creative Wooden Creatures fills a gap in the wooden toy market.

Toy design aims to foster creativity while offering entertainment with sustainable materials. Created with simple organic forms without any sharp angles, pieces fit to hand.

Improving motor skills, memory, imagination, and basic shape recognition abilities, the design also fosters love and care for animals, so perfect for a design-driven education.

Creative Wooden Creatures by Designnobis was honored in A’ Design Award 2012-2013 with a platinum award in Toy and Recreation Design category and in International Design Award 2013 with a bronze award in Sports/Toys/Games category and other product design category with the runner-up.

It was selected in Green Dot Design Award 2013 with runner-up and was honored in International Design Excellence Awards 2013 with finalist. It is also a nominee in German Design Award 2016.