Heart Of Barkness
Ruffa, a new start up focused on optimizing canine health came to FUSE wanting to do a line of design forward molded dog toys. Toys dogs can really bite and chew while their human guardians can admire aesthetically. The designs need to be able to offer engaging, mouth feel and possibly hold treats or have surface development that can hold smeared peanut butter or wet food. Seems like a way to wreck your home’s interior to me, but I guess you’re ready for that if you’re taking in an animal that chews everything and poops anywhere already. Certainly, the more uptight can add the smeared food to the toy for outside play.
Also, because the toys are silicone , wall thickness is not an issue. It’s possible to over mold a denser asymmetrical core to create a product with a more random bounce that dogs love.
As our usual, or our fusual ( I’ll be here all week), we did a lot of exploring, but what we and the client really liked were these more abstract computational/generative designs. Much more complicated but still mold-able in food grade silicone. They’re like these beautiful objects worthy of display, but can be fun for a dog’s mouth and brain.
