Mojo Nation Announces Winners of Virtual Play Creators Awards

September 6, 2021 | As part of its 2021 virtual Play Creators Festival, Mojo Nation announced the winners of its annual Play Creators Awards, which celebrates the achievements of the global toy and game designer community across nine categories.

The 2021 awards recognized designers and inventors from Fat Brain Toys, Hasbro, Ravensburger, and TOMY, among others, while Triclops Studio’s Rob Ames & Luc Hudson were honored with the Design Icon Award. The full list of winners is available online.

“A huge congrats to all of this year’s winners, and all of the finalists that made up this year’s nominees; it’s another great reminder of the special creative talent we have in our industry,” said Billy Langsworthy, co-founder of Mojo Nation.

The Toy Association’s educational program for inventors and designers, Creative Factor, sponsored this year’s awards as well as the Play Creators Festival, which opened with a four-day conference featuring virtual talks with some of the biggest design talents in the industry. The event closes later this week following a two-day series of pitch sessions.

Kimberly Carcone, senior vice president of global market events at The Toy Association, added: “It is an honor for The Toy Association to continue to collaborate with Mojo Nation on such programming that continues to shine a spotlight on the innovative work of the toy inventor and designer community that makes our industry possible.”

Mojo Nation and The Toy Association will partner once again at Toy Fair New York ’22 in February for “Brands Untapped,” an innovative new show space that will highlight multiple creative collaborations between toy companies and high-profile partners spanning everything from apparel to live events and publishing. The space will also host an accompanying “Brands Untapped” conference featuring talks and panels that explore design stories behind extensions of iconic toy brands into licensed categories.