Thinking With The Hands: Design As A Practice Of Interdisciplinary Translation: Case Study: The Friendm@ker

This article stems from research conducted within a Master's program in Product Design, focusing on the creation of a playful and pedagogical children’s clothing object conceived as a device for learning and critical reflection on contemporary childhood culture. The study starts from the observation that childhood is increasingly adultised, reduced to a logic of consumption, and distanced from the playful experiences that allow the child to develop imagination, creativity, and symbolic thought. The project The Friendm@ker aims to counter this trend by designing a hybrid object—simultaneously clothing, a toy, and a picture book—that reintroduces play as a language essential to child development. Based on an exploratory methodology, the design process combined theoretical research, material experimentation, and visual creation, integrating principles of sustainability, inclusion, and playfulness. The article presents design as a practice of interdisciplinary translation, mediating between fields such as pedagogy, psychology, illustration, and textile design, and generating cultural and affective meanings that go beyond the utilitarian function of the object. Keywords: design; interdisciplinarity; childhood; toy; illustration; sustainability