Industrial Designer, Toys and Games, Thinkfun

Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) • Full-time • Alexandria, Virginia, United States • $65k - $85k / year • 2w ago

ThinkFun is seeking a creative, enthusiastic Industrial Designer with a background in Toy Design to join our team. This role focuses on the designing of physical games and toys, typically but not limited to injection-molded plastics. The ideal candidate will have a background in Industrial Design, experience with board games and toys, and will enjoy collaborating with a fun, fast-paced team.

ThinkFun focuses on developing thinking skills for fun-loving players of all ages and backgrounds. Our products push players to keep thinking deeper and trying harder through fun experiences that we are passionate about getting just right. We are looking for a Toy/Industrial Designer with game and toy industry experience that can collaborate with our team, be creative under pressure, and deliver fun and unique designs to expand our range of products. We offer a diverse working environment with a tremendously fun team, plenty of opportunity, and a chance to impact the world through game-based learning.

Position Summary:

The Product Designer will be primarily responsible for the concepting and industrial design of 2-3 physical, injection-molded and/or printed products per cycle (roughly 4 per year), and additional support with other concurrent products as needed. A particular focus on the User Experience with the physical item will also be a responsibility, as the nature of ThinkFun products relies heavily on the consumer’s ability to easily and naturally interact with our games. The candidate must have a working knowledge of design for production in CAD, and the experience to accurately estimate production costs. The candidate should also have experience developing games and toys. The Product Designer will be expected to create and maintain BOMs for each product, and communication with manufactures will be a regular task in this role. A creative mindset and high capacity for collaboration is a must.

Essential Responsibilities:

Create storyboards for toy and game products, including game themes/story, form, and technical function
Create the industrial design portion of new toy and game concepts
Develop CAD files for production
Test and edit gameplay to ensure that products are fun and in keeping with ThinkFun’s brand. This includes participating in regular playtests, revising instructions, and playing through challenge sets
Push concepts to new levels of innovation while keeping production costs manageable
Create BOMs and communicating with manufacturing partners to ensure components are functional, accurate, and efficient
Quickly sketch new design options for review in order to facilitate decisions
Clearly and efficiently present concept options to a team of collaborators and management
Oversee outsourced production and development by contractors when necessary
Build models and prototypes to demonstrate proof of concept to the PD team
Maintain an extensive knowledge of the toy and game industry
Some travel

Essential Skills:

Creativity and quick thinking
Strong sketching/rendering skills
The ability to collaborate and give and take development direction
The ability to work quickly to meet deadlines
Strong communication skills
Expertise in Industrial Design with injection molded products
Expertise in User Experience as related to Industrial design
Prototyping expertise – model making, 3D printing, etc.
Working knowledge of Solidworks and Adobe suite

Experience:

Bachelor’s Degree or better in Industrial Design, Toy or Game Design, or similar related field
5+ years as a professional product designer, with a portfolio of products on-shelf

Job Type: