Cristie Blandford

Department: Social Design
Website: www.cristieb.com

Seed

Due to parental separation, many children are growing up in single-parent households. It is difficult for the absent parent to maintain an intimate bond with their child away from the family home. With affordable modern technology such as Skype, contact is easier than it was in the past, but such communication remains rather unimaginative, especially for younger children.
Cristie Blandford saw room for improvement. She designed Seed as a means of engaging children (5-10 years) with a more creative, emotional and interactive medium. Seed is a box for growing plants, a talking point to ‘seed conversation’ when it might be hard to know where to start. Incorporated in the lid of the planter is a portable webcam designed for easy gripping by small hands. This frees the child from having to sit still behind a computer screen and also helps the parent or other family member to feel the excitement and energy of the child through the movement of the webcam. Of course, this design could help all loved ones living apart to reconnect with young children in a more playful way.