Designed with the engineering team at Creative Cedar Designs. 

Available for purchase at these retailers:

https://www.wayfair.com/Creative-Cedar-Designs-Snail-Toddler-Swing-CCED1027.html

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Creative-Cedar-Designs-Snail-Toddler-Swing-with-Rope-BP019-O/302125877?keyword=snail+swing

This Snail Shaped outdoor swing for toddlers was designed, engineered, prototyped, and produced over the course of several months for the Residential Outdoor Play market. 

My reason for choosing a Snail shape for this swing is because I noticed that most playground parts on the market are just utilitarian shapes. 

My vision for this Snail swing, and for the other pieces in this collection that I design are to be that you look out your window and you see a little woodland creature wonderland full of animals and plants and bugs. That is what naturally lives in a backyard to begin with, so why not make them a little bit bigger and a little bit brighter?

After submitting about ten different nature inspired concepts to our team of engineers in China, they agreed that they thought the snail would be the best concept to move forward with.

Initial Ideation Sketch:

We communicated through Skype calls and by email over the course of several months, as they modeled the swing according not only to my design, but to ASTM standards, comfort for the end user, drainage, and much more.

Edits made to the Snail's eyes...

Underside of the swing with drainage holes, rope holes, and plastic guides for the ropes to keep them taut in the right directions.

First full size prototype!

We ended up changing the swing a lot after this first prototype was made. When we put a child inside, the walls around her were a bit too snug. After lowering the height and width of the walls, we scaled the head down also.

Side by Side comparison of first Snail Prototype with a popular toddler swing on the market.

We saw that the Snail prototype's head would block a child's face, so we scaled that down.

After edits were made based on the prototypes, the final designs were mass produced, and sent to our warehouse in Chattanooga, TN where we photographed them.