sig. errore
[0VERVIEW]
For my final Bachelor's project in Industrial Product Design at Politecnico di Milano, I designed a children's toy around one stubborn idea: that mistakes are worth celebrating, not hiding.
Sig. Errore is built from deliberately "wrong" pieces — mismatched parts that, once assembled, become imperfect little characters full of personality.
TIMELINE & GOALS
4 months. A solo project. A toy that teaches kids the value of getting it wrong.
MY ROLE
A solo project: concept, product design, character, illustration, and branding are all mine.
RECOGNITION
Selected and presented at Toy Design Factor 2025 (POLI.design × Assogiocattoli).
[MANIFEST0]
It started with a book
This project didn't start as a toy. It started with a book: Roberto Saviano's Bacio feroce. And with a line in particular:
“Voi che avete educato i vostri bambini secondo le regole di questo mondo […] le regole dei vincitori. I vostri bambini saranno come quelle regole, né buoni né cattivi, saranno identici al mondo in cui li avete educati. Il mondo dei vincitori.”
“You who have educated your children by the rules of this world, rules nor good nor bad, the rules of the winners. Your children will be like those rules, nor good nor bad, identical to the world in which you have educated them. The world of the winners.”
~[R0bert0 Savian0]
[THE T0Y]
The wrong piece is the point
Sig. Errore is a set of modular pieces designed never to quite match. Kids combine them freely, and whatever comes out, lopsided, odd, unrepeatable, is a character of its own.
There's no correct build. The mistake isn't a flaw in the game; it is the game.
[THE MECHANISM]
Only the wrong one walks
The set even includes the "correct" pieces, the matching parts that would make Sig. Errore whole and proper.
But build him right, set him on his wheel, and he won't take a step: a hidden play of levers locks a matched pair of legs, and the stride never completes. Only a mismatched, "wrong" build actually moves. The toy proves its own point in your hands — assemble it correctly and it stays still; assemble it wrong and it comes to life.
[THE B0DY]
Why a grown-up?
The character kids make mistakes with has a body and, on purpose, an adult one.
When they play, they aren't only making Sig. Errore get it wrong, they're giving themselves permission to. And they do it through someone who, to them, feels far from failure: a well-dressed adult, a parent heading to work, themselves in the future.
Playing with a grown-up who makes mistakes is the first step to becoming a grown-up who knows how to.
[PLAY TEST]
TESTED WITH KIDS
I put it in real children's hands. They didn't look for the "right" way to build: they invented their own, laughed at the odd results, and kept going. To them, the imperfection was never a problem. It was the fun.
[scu0la bac0ne, milan0 l0ret0]
[BRAND IDENTITY]
CHARACTER & ILLUSTRATION
The little mustached figure at the heart of the project gave it a face and a voice. I designed the character and the whole visual world around it — from the shapes of the pieces to the final illustration.
Off-white #F7F6F2
Cream #FEE0B7
Taupe #816A55
Brown #624F3D
black #0D0F0F
yellow #FDC437
orange #DE8C2F
blue #57739F
red #BA312F
navy #384B6C
[TAKEAWAYS]
Doing it all alone changed how I see my work
Building an entire project on my own reshaped how conscious I am of what I actually want to give the world through design, my values, and how I bring them into what I make. Sig. Errore pushed me to think hard about what a project is for, almost philosophically, before it's anything else.
Nowhere to hide
This time there were no teammates with complementary skills to lean on. I had to carry every step myself. It turned out to be the perfect way to meet my own weak spots: where I struggle, where my gaps are, and where, instead, I move fast. You learn a lot about yourself when there's no one else to cover for you.
