THE BRICKBOOK

TitleTHE BRICKBOOK
BrandLITTLE VILLAGE
Product / ServiceLITTLE VILLAGE
CategoryB02. Promotional Item Design
EntrantGEOMETRY GLOBAL Singapore, SINGAPORE
Idea Creation GEOMETRY GLOBAL Singapore, SINGAPORE
PR OGILVY SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE

Credits

Name Company Position
Jon Hamm Geometry Global Chief Creative Officer
Daniel Comar Geometry Regional Executive Creative Director
Jorge Thauby Geometry Creative Director
Julian Gutierrez Geometry Senior Copywriter
kimmy de Leon Geometry Senior Art Director
Anne Yong Geometry Senior Designer
Victor Bernal Geometry Copywriter
Jane Perry Geometry Managing Director
Jasmine Teo Geometry Associate Account Director
Jody Ong Geometry Planner
Amos Mak Geometry Art Director
Lim Seng Jueh Lim Seng Jueh Film Director
Eerong Chong Ogilvy Group Managing Director
Fred Tong Ogilvy Strategy Director
Claudio Chock Ogilvy Content Creator
Shi Yun Yong Ogilvy Senior Associate
Joy Francisco Ogilvy Senior Associate
Eileen Chua Ogilvy Director of Consumer Marketing
Sarah Guldin Ogilvy Director, Corporate Communications

The Campaign

Out of the many subjects, pre-school students struggle most with arithmetic lessons – students copy scribbles on the white board and memorise them so they could complete the worksheets, but they find it difficult to apply the same formula onto other sums. The teachers thought otherwise to incorporate learning aids to engage the class; getting their hands on tactile tools to visualise arithmetic patterns to learn addition, subtraction and fractions. One such learning aid was a bucket of plastic toy bricks with multiples of studs. By complementing lesson guides with interlocking toy bricks that the children were already familiar with, this presents a unique opportunity to combine creative thinking and design. They created the BrickBook: making a nifty box to contain the toy-bricks and learning guides so it is more mobile to be taken out of the school and even airfreight to other developing countries in need of learning aids.

Creative Execution

The Brick Book took inspiration from a toolbox, with different compartments to house pieces of guide cards, toy bricks and dice for the educational games. Light and compact, the kit is mobile enough to be airfreight to other countries. Little Village’s corporate branding is dominated by graphics of cute animals rolling in grass fields. Applying this onto the Brick Book design, an animal was chosen to represent each set of learning cards. The pastel coloured cards contrasted and complemented beautifully with the bright colours of the toy bricks to attract young children’s attention. Inclusive of planning, design, and production, the Brick Book project took a total of seven months. Over 8,000 old toy bricks were collected from donations and packaged with a 100-card deck of learning guides. The Brick Books were carefully packed by the children in Singapore before getting hand-delivered to over 10 impoverished schools in Myanmar.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

The Brick Book initiative has helped to inculcate the value of protecting the environment amongst the young children in Singapore – teaching them that what they’d usually choose to discard into landfills can give new hope to disadvantaged children. Within the first week of launch of the initiative, local media and forums picked up on the initiative and spun off different debates and discussion on the indisputable role of play in early childhood development. Little Village was highlighted as one of several other pre-schools that alternative pedagogy centred around meaningful learning for young children. On the receiving end, the Burmese teachers and children gained access to essential and engaging learning resources. This marks a first step to better education as the critical ingredient to alleviate poverty and abuses associated with child labour that is currently rampant across Myanmar.

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