Career Blog Post

Feb 21, 2025
2 min read

Toy Designer

Responsibilities: Toy designers are responsible for creatively forming and designing new toys. These designers must be able to use creative thinking and manual skills in order to create toys that effectively appeal to children.

Required Credentials: It is possible to become a toy designer without a college degree if you are self-employed, however, it is more common for toy manufacturers to hire applicants who do have a college degree.

A Typical Day for a Toy Designer:

A typical day for a toy designer requires research, designing, and production. Although all of these tasks may not be conquered every single day, these are tasks all necessary for toy designers to do, even if it takes a span of multiple days. Toy designers need to research toy design trends, consumer behavior, popular toy features, past toy successes and failures, and child development in order to create a successful toy. The designers then need to begin brainstorming, sketching, and prototyping the new toy. After receiving feedback and making adjustments to improve the toy, the toy begins its production process, where designers are then expected to pitch and present their new toy for manufacturers and clients. Overall, toy designers are tasked with the weight of creating toys that safely bring children joy and sparks their imagination.

Skills Necessary for Designing Toys

Creativity
Manual Skills
Computer Skills
Business Skills
Skills with Different Materials
Experience with Children

Experiences Necessary for Designing Toys:

It's important to familiarize yourself with jobs in the design industry to give you practical experience of working with computer design software, different materials, collaborating with a team, and designing and curating new ideas. Acquiring experience will not only benefit you skill-wise, but allow for you to have a more appealing resume when applying for toy deigning positions in the future.

Recommended College Majors that Provide Training related to Toy Designing: