Founded in 2016 by award winning Designer and Biomedical Engineer, Jacqueline Savage, Mioplay is a Melbourne based baby brand encapsulating the creative fusion of developmental science and design in children’s products. The concept of Mioplay began to take form after a long and arduous shopping endeavour, where Jacqueline struggled to fine the perfect gift for her expecting sister, Behavioural Neuroscientist Dr. Emilia Savage.
“There was nothing, everything was plastic, brightly coloured and made of materials that I knew were not safe and would break very quickly- not to mention ending up in landfill. I could not bring myself to buy anything, so I decided to make my own. My background is Product Design/ Biomedical Engineering and I have spent a lot of time designing products in the healthcare industry focusing on health, safety and materials. I knew that I could not only create a safer product, but something that restored quality back to children’s toys.
When I was growing up, the toys we had as children were passed down from generation to generation, they were kept and treasured. It saddens me that we don’t have this same connection with products anymore and I wanted to change that. Developing products that serve more than one function as well as being of high quality materials, not only means dollar savings for households long term but also for our environment. Reducing the amount of short life, low quality baby products used every year, means less non-recyclable waste ending up in our landfill.”
The decision to create a business was not that straight forward, as Jacqueline is the CEO and Founder of MedCorp technologies; a digital health company developing wearable technologies and devices for the healthcare industry. She has been widely celebrated in the healthcare industry for her innovations, winning numerous awards including: 2016 Telstra Victorian Entrepreneur of the Year Award, 2016 Emerging Women in Leadership Award, BioMelbourne Network and voted Top 100 Global Engineering Innovators by NASA in 2014.
“My passion is creating products that make a difference to people’s lives. Be it medical technologies and devices or developmental learning toys for children. The goal is always the same. To create something that addresses a need, is safe, provides greater function and respects the environment. I knew that with my medical team at MedCorp, we could develop something great with Mioplay.”
With a team of designers, engineers and doctors sitting within MedCorp, Jacqueline decided to peruse Mioplay. With one little difference. All the profits of Mioplay go to supporting the development of medical innovations in the healthcare industry at MedCorp Technologies.
“The idea behind Mioplay, was to address a need in the baby product market and provide parents with a safe, quality and non-toxic solution to supporting the development of their children. In doing this, we were able to not only make a difference to parents and infant development but also simultaneously, provide support to the development of life saving medical technologies within MedCorp. This year we have been able to fund five engineering and design student internship programs. In addition, in September we are launching a program with Swinburne University in Melbourne, focused around teaching students how to design health and education products for the environment”.
Using materials and manufacturing processes from the medical device industry, Mioplay has developed an award winning antibacterial sensory toy range that is steriliser, dishwasher and freezer safe. The carefully designed form, textures and colours of each product has been specifically created to support the key developmental learning milestone of infants; visual stimulation, cognitive development, motor skills as well as teething relief.
Mioplay’s award winning Sensory Teething Toy range is Australia's first antibacterial infant teething product providing parents with a safe, non-toxic solution to supporting the development of their children. Designed by a team of Australian designers, biomedical engineers and doctors, this product range promotes key developmental learning stages of infants through targeted sensory stimulation.
Design Elements:
Form:
The smooth contouring surfaces have been designed to eliminate grooves and cavities in which bacteria can grow. The overall form of the product has been intentionally simplified to create strong silhouette shapes, tailored for infants vision, reducing visual strain. The pastel colour pallet of the products were selected to further aid the calming educational benefit, with a key aim to not overstimulate or aggravate the infant with brightly coloured or strongly contrasting tones.
Function:
The Sensory Toy range is created with a "soft feel" finish simulating the texture of skin, creating a calming and tactile experience for infants. The range supports the key developmental stages of infants through carefully designed textile patterns for cognitive development, gasping holes and form optimised for motor skill refinement as well as simplified shapes and muted colours for gentle visual stimulation.
The attachment strap accessory has a secure snap clip design and non-slip rubber strap, enabling easy attachment to prams/carriers and high chairs. This attachment transforms the product to enhance its educational benefits and integration in daily parenting routines.
