Little People

A perennial favorite among parents and kids, 'Little People' have become a part of contemporary childhood as much as Radio Flyer, Frisbee, or Legos. There's some basic fun play that endures, along with the actual product, allowing them to become toys that are handed down for generations. 
Fisher Price introduced the first Little People sets in 1960, and though they have expanded and evolved over the past 50 years, they have retained their signature identity and irresistible charm.
I have been fortunate enough to work on a lot of Little People concepts over the past 20 years. Some have explored new approaches for classic Little People themes, different play patterns, innovative twists on existing ideas, ..one of the most recent being the 'Wheelies' line, which combines classic LP character play with vehicle and track play.  It's an exciting new direction and I'm thrilled to be a part of it.  I'll post a few of those soon.

In the meantime,  here is one of the very first Little People concepts for which I was brought in by Fisher Price. Their 'Discovery City' took Little People character play to a (then) new level of action, lights and sound FX.
Initially it was called 'Smart City', and sadly, I don't have a copy of the color rendering to post.  This job was done before the advent of the internet and emailing scanned jpegs,  back when I sent original art to clients via FedEx. ..Oh, those primitive times!..  

Designed years later, another example of putting an interactive twist on a classic theme, the Little People 'Pop N Surprise' train set;

As I said earlier, there have been a lot more over the years, these being just a couple, and I'll post more in the future.
The following project was more recent, and in celebration the aforementioned 50th birthday.  Fisher Price wanted to reproduce a line of classic Little People play sets to mark the occasion, and I was called in again.  As much as everyone loved the idea of simply re-releasing these sets as originally produced, some trimming was required and the approach ended up being more simplified and commemorative in nature.  The sets produced were the Little People Farm, the Little People House, and the Little People School.
Here are those designs;

 Here is how they turned out;

.. I also came up with a design for the Little People A-Frame House set, which I thought was awesome as a kid (though I never had one).  The actual A-frame home design was hugely popular in the late 60s to early 70s, at this point acquiring a dated mid-century charm.  I admit, I was pulling for this one to be in the line, but alas; it didn't make the cut.

..simplified, as the others in the line, but still a delightful trip back in time.
For those of you who don't remember the original;