Atelier Pierre wants to be more than just a design label. Always looking for social added value, the meeting between CEO Frank Vanhalst and Piet Grymonprez, co-founder of My Machine, quickly grew into a wonderful collaboration. My Machine is a Kortrijk-based non-profit organization that gives students worldwide the opportunity to participate in a unique 'maker trajectory' in which they are guided in the creative development of an idea into a prototype. One of the first prototypes was the friendly ghost hunter. This was conceived and developed by a team of West Flemish schools and is the first item that was also translated into a design object in collaboration with Atelier Pierre Junior.
My Machine is a Kortrijk-based non-profit organization that stimulates creativity and entrepreneurship in children and young adults worldwide by involving them in the production process from idea to prototype. 'myBOO' was developed based on an idea and elaboration by West Flemish schools. It is the first My Machine prototype that has been translated into a design object through the collaboration with Atelier Pierre Junior.
Activating the 'myBOO' ghost hunter from AP Junior is simple: as a parent, you press the on/off button for two seconds. After that, the friendly ghost hunts bad ghosts in different phases and light colors from red (danger) over blue (good ghosts are spared) to green (safe!) for one minute each. Children who want to speed up this process can do so by gently tapping the ghost. After hunting ghosts, 'myBOO' gives ten minutes of white light. Then it dims out and it's bedtime. 'myBOO' not only provides a feeling of safety but also stimulates positive contact between parent and child (and a good night's sleep for both 😊).
Passing on, recycling, and registering
Even better: via a QR code on the packaging, every child can find a way to pass on his or her 'myBOO' to an underprivileged child after it has served its purpose. And because 'myBOO' is made up of different separate modules, each part can be perfectly recycled via the correct waste circuit. Moreover, every child can register their friendly ghost on the 'myBOO' website. This way, every child can see on the online world map which cities and regions are ghost-free.
More about MyMachine
Young children are very creative. Unfortunately, most educational programs do not take this skill – which is crucial for entrepreneurship – seriously enough, and most children lose their creativity as they get older. MyMachine wants to change that. The West Flemish non-profit organization – founded by Piet Grymonprez, Filip Meuris, and Jan Despiegelaere – has the mission to stimulate creativity and entrepreneurship in children and young adults worldwide. Every year, MyMachine launches a call among schools to then form teams that participate in the creation process of a dream machine for one school year and help build it from idea to prototype. The methodology is unique: children in primary school come up with a dream machine, which is then translated into a concept together with higher education students, and finally, together with vocational secondary education students, it is actually converted into a functioning prototype. In recent years, out of tens of thousands of children's ideas, prototypes of, among other things, a French fry cannon, an anti-boredom machine, and a spank machine have seen the light of day. In recent years, MyMachine has received international recognition, including the United Nations World Summit Award, and the West Flemish non-profit organization now also works in Slovenia, Norway, Slovakia, France, Portugal, South Africa, and the US through license collaborations.
