Creative Rejuvenation at the Snow Farm Craft Center

Kris Paulson a lead designer from  our Furby team, made this faux deer head wall hanging.
I just returned from three awesome days of creative rejuvenation at Snow Farm – a New England creative retreat located in WIlliamsburg, MA. I rarely write about my day job at Hasbro, mostly because I can’t – I’m not allowed to mention what projects I work on, or what properties  – in many ways, it’s like working for a top secret division of the government, except instead of the Army, we work on G.I. Joe and Transformers.  There are many benefits in working in such a job, my position as a creative director  allows me to work with an extremely talented and diverse group of creative people – the culture is super vibrant, super fast paced and super interesting, but all that Monopoly and Elmo fur can get old, and working behind locked doors with secret codes can make a creative pretty restless – so this past week, all Hasbro designers in design & development ( R&D) were zipped off to a creative offsite to let loose and, well…create. 

THE WELDING BARN AT SNOW FARM
 Look, even if one is working on My Little Pony or Furby as I have been for the past year, it’s nice to let frustrations out with a sledge hammer in a blacksmithing class or a blow torch in a welding class! I took two classes, Blacksmithing, so that I could make some hangers for the greenhouse, and Rustic Garden Furniture, which was incredibly easy and rewarding. Expect to see many new projects now that I know how to stick branched together.
MY NEW RUSTIC GARDEN GATE MADE IN A DAY, FROM CHERRY AND YELLOW BIRCH. IT WAS SO EASY, I WILL NEED TO SHARE WITH YOU HOW TO DO IT.

WES, FROM THE NERF TEAM, AND CHRIS FROM GAMES SHARE THIER CREATIONS FROM THE WOODWORKING SHOP.

PAPER MARBLING  WAS POPULAR CLASS, I HEARD THE STAFF COMMENTING LATER THAT THEY NEVER SAW SO MANY STYLISH DESIGNS!. I HAVE TO ADMIT, THEY LOOKED PRETTY NICE, AND I WISHED I TOOK THIS WORKSHOP.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A GROUP OF TALENTED DESIGNERS TAKE A PAPER MARBLING CLASS

SOME OF OUR BOYS ACTION FIGURE TEAMS GOT IN TOUCH WITH THEIR FEMININE SIDE IN FURNITURE PAINTING. THIS IS AN ACTION FIGURE DESIGNER WORKING ON A FAIRY ILLUSTRATION

DORI, FROM THE GIRLS TOYS TEAM, DISPLAYS A CHAIR THAT SHE MADE IN TWO CLASSES – MOSAIC WORK AND FURNITURE PAINTING.

MANY OF THE BOYS ACTION FIGURE DESIGNERS ENDED UP MAKING THOR HAMMERS. IN THEIR WOOD WORKING CLASS – BOYS WILL BE BOYS.

GLASSBLOWING IS ALWAYS A POPULAR CLASS. HERE, A PRESCHOOL DESIGNER IS WORKING ON A GLASS GLOBE

THE INSTRUCTOR THEN DID A DEMO, AND MADE THIS AMAZING WATER GOBLET

ONE OF OUR NEW DESIGNERS SAT OUT ON THE LAWN ALL DAY, SEEMINGLY CONFUSED, AS HE TRIED TO ASSEMBLE A PILE OF DRIFTWOOD INTO SOMETHING – HERE IS THE RESULT – HE CREATED A RUNNING DOG!

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Comments

  1. That's wonderful! You've probably heard this many times before, but I think you've got one of the best jobs around. Your colleagues look like such a fun & talented team to be with. And what a great idea to go to the creative retreat. All the works look great. My fav. are the dear head, branch gate & running dog. Awesome! 🙂

  2. Thanks for the shout out, Matt. We had a lot of fun with the Hasbro gang at Snow Farm. Gardeners will also love the natural beauty at Snow Farm in all seasons. We hope you'll come back soon! snowfarm.org.

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