Holiday Gift Guide 2013: Puzzles + Games

Wooden Connect Game ($68) | Table Tennis ( 19.95EU) | Safari Jumble Puzzle ($32) | River Rock Tic Tac Toe ($26) | Wooden Dominos ($24.95) | Good Old Fashioned Fun Deck ($15) | U.S. Puzzle ($69) | Pick Up Sticks ($6.99) | Chunky Wooden Chess Set ($44) | Typography Alphabet Puzzle ($254.20) | Marbles ($27) | Geoform Puzzle Set ($48) | Gold Dipped Cards ($18)

2013 Holiday Gift Guide: 

For Your Little Artist

For the Babes

Make Believe

Musical Toys

Play Kitchen

Animal Friends

Little Movers

Pretend

Dolls

Little Reader

Science + Nature

Toys + Play

Featured:

Looodus

Looodus is a newly established children’s design brand based in Milan, Italy. Founded this year, 2013, by Denise Bonenti, journalist and photographer and Kurt Stapelfeldt a designer.

The two have, like many other self producers in the design sector, created a company out of a necessity to provide the type of pieces for their own daughter, which they have not been able to find in the marketplace. The brand respects the aesthetic values and language which they both aspire to in their everyday lives and which they hope to impart to their daughter.

The projects which Looodus undertakes are in the toys and home décor sector, using mainly local Italian wood which are created in close partnership with their manufacturer in Trivero, Piemonte about an hour and a half from Milan. The artisans have a second generation family run carpentry shop and together with looodus are pushing the limits of traditional knowledge combined with digital design to create beautiful hand finish, 100% MADE IN ITALY objects.

The toys especially, are developed with numerous interactions between the designers and a pedagogical consultant. This is to ensure that the items developed give the child the opportunity to grow with it and learn as well as have fun and develop a strong and healthy imagination. 

The objects created by looodus at the moment and in the future are all pieces which the founders give to their own daughter, so safety and quality are at the top of their list, just like any parent. The attention to design language and colour choices are the at the foundation of this new brand and the inspiration for the slogan, FOR KIDS BIG AND SMALL.