Cubcho

What Cubcho needed

Viktoriya developed the press at the Design Academy in Eindhoven: a mechanical press that turns old paper into papier-mâché cubes, so people can recycle it themselves. She saw the bigger opportunity in children — screen-free time that teaches where materials come from and builds real skill.

Add water and paper, optionally sand, coffee grounds, vegetable peel, spices or flowers, and it presses solid, colourful building blocks.

She had a strong concept and a successful showing at Dutch Design Week 2022. What stood between that and a product was everything that comes after.

What makes it hard

Designing for children inverts the usual priorities. It has to be safe with no supervision assumed, obvious enough to use without instructions, and strong enough to survive being used wrongly — repeatedly, enthusiastically.

The deliberate constraint of no batteries, no plastic and no screen removes the easy answers. Every function has to be mechanical, which means the tolerances and the feel of the mechanism are the product.

What we did

We took her design and made it easier to manufacture, cheaper to produce, and better at withstanding time and use — the three things that decide whether a graduation project becomes a product or stays a prototype.

Manufacturing tolerance is most of that work. A press has to close on the same dimensions every time or the blocks do not stack, so parts get measured rather than eyeballed.

Then we launched the Kickstarter campaign and helped with everything around it — producing the campaign materials, arranging the brand identity with designers, and building the online store.

Where it stands

Fully funded on Kickstarter with backers in over 15 countries. Cubcho is now sold and used in workshops across Europe.