Kid-Tested, Designer-Dad Approved

Rob Kimmel stirs his son’s imagination by sticking a Post-It note containing an unfinished illustration and caption to his son’s lunchbox every day. The results—sumo-rats and killer mushrooms. See more Lunch Posts at www.wandermonster.com.

Designer dad Rob Kimmel offers 7 games to kick-start any kid’s imagination with creative play.

My 7-year-old’s lunchbox is a hostile environment. An oozing PB&J wrestles with browning apple slices, while a wounded juice box bleeds out. But I know that if I dig through the wreckage at the end of the day, I’ll find Bigfoot’s ghost, a zombie t-rex or a singing cactus.

Every school day for the past three years, I’ve stuck a Post-it note to the inside lid of my son’s lunchbox, each with a half-completed drawing and a half-written caption. I anxiously look forward to picking him up at the end of his day to see how he’s finished these miniature comics. Some are mutilated or covered with spilled juice; others never make it back. The ones that do, though, are spectacular, bursting with imagination and ridiculous humor.

These Lunch Posts grew out of a back-and-forth drawing game we invented to fill long subway rides. In kindergarten, when he was learning how to write, I started popping them into his lunch. It became a ritual, a way for us to stay in touch in the middle of the day. Why stop playing just because we’re not together?

Play has always been part of my design process. Just as scientists are kids who never forgot how to explore and ask questions, I think artists are kids who never stopped playing or drawing. My best work has come not from sweaty grid-building and pixel-pushing, but from experimentation. I try to bring this attitude to my design students at Pratt Institute, reminding them that sketching is playing, and that interesting failures are better than mediocre successes.

It wasn’t much of a leap to apply that way of creative brainstorming to parenting. Having a child has been an opportunity to share some of my methods on another level, to train a collaborator.

• Find tips for filling that seemingly “dead” time (in line, etc.) with creativity.

This is a great time to be a parent. We aren’t so hung up on old-school conventions of adult behavior and traditional roles (especially for fathers, who get to participate in our kids’ lives to an extent rarely seen in previous generations). Imaginative play is getting the respect it deserves, with ideas like “multiple intelligences” unlocking the potential of kids who may have been bored or ignored in the past. After a couple of generations when people forgot how to make things, many are rediscovering tool benches and sewing machines. Meanwhile, the economy has forced us to buy fewer things off the shelf, driving the DIY ethic into the mainstream. All these factors combine to validate creative parenting. Making stuff together—whether with a camera or clay, a stove top or power drill—bonds us in a visceral way. It also gives children the experience of direct control over their world, a vital counterpoint to the abstract, texture-less, digital environment they’re immersed in at an increasingly early age.

It’s a running gag that kids prefer the thrill of ripping off wrapping paper more than the expensive birthday present inside. We should absorb the lesson and join our kids on the floor with the scraps. Here are some activities, including the Lunch Posts game, that my son and I have created or borrowed. Each one’s been tweaked and hammered as we used them, so tailor them to fit your kids’ interests, ages and abilities.  And remember—have fun.

MORE RESOURCES FOR GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

• Engage creative kids in design and the creative process. Check out “Design Dossier: Graphic Design.”
• Check out the “Written on the City” and explore the beautiful side of graffiti.
• The Accidental Creative DesignCast series unlocks keys for being creative under pressure. Find out more.