『Young Bird Gallery与品牌的核心、设计的故事、生活中存在的多重美学有关。结合丰富的内容编辑与品牌策划经验，经过大量的采集、思考和提炼，用大胆深入的表达方式、帮助品牌把最核心、最动人的部分传输出去。』
2016年，YoungBird以建筑和设计为原点迅速辐射到更多领域和行业，受玩具品牌美高积木的邀请担任公共艺术策展及专业顾问，负责激发新生一代的创造力和想象力，并以跨界的形式为美高品牌打破疆界，实现品牌影响力提升。
Since early this year, YoungBird has been making inroads into the fields of industrial design, art and so forth based on its foothold in the architecture and design sector. Commissioned by the world leading toy brand Mega Bloks as its public art curator and consultancy, we’ve been committed to inspiring creativity of the new generation and helping the brand push its limits through this multidisciplinary cooperation in a bid to expand its influence.
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►美高MEGA: 30年玩具传奇
Mega Bloks: A Toy Legend Spanning Three Decades
美高公司诞生于享有“浪漫之都”美誉的蒙特利尔，是加拿大最大的玩具公司，同时也是全球第二大积木玩具生产商。公司旗下著名品牌Mega Bloks@（以下统称美高积木）以其创新精心设计、经济实惠和高品质特点畅销全球，为儿童提供了具有启发性和创造性的玩耍体验。
Mega Brands, Inc., formerly Mega Bloks, Inc., is a top Canadian children's toy company currently owned by Mattel and the world’s second biggest building-block manufacturer. Mega Bloks, a line of construction set toys featuring innovative design, affordability and premium quality, has been hugely popular around the world, bringing about inspirational experiences for children.
当时的加拿大第一大都市—蒙特利尔
Montreal, the then-largest metropolis in Canada
Victor Bertrand是个热爱玩具的少年，十七岁时，他立志进入玩具领域，于是他白天在父母的公司帮工，晚上在夜校学习贸易，想要把世界上最好的玩具分享给加拿大的孩子们。1967年，二十四岁的Victor独自创立第一家玩具公司，根据妻子的名字Rita结合Victor将公司命名为Ritvik Holdings。
Victor is truly a self-made entrepreneur. Going to night school and working during the day to support his parents, he got his start in the toy industry at the age of 17. It was his dream to make the world’s most extraordinary toys accessible to children in his home country. In 1967 he and his wife Rita founded their first company named Ritvik Holdings, a toy distribution company (Ritvik was a portmanteau word based on a combination of Rita and Victor).
同年，蒙特利尔世博会召开。
Expo 67 was held in Montreal that same year.
1967年蒙特利尔世博会，具有强烈视觉冲击的建筑激发了Victor对于拼搭玩具的兴趣。
The visually impressive structures at the Expo 67 inspired Victor’s interest in construction toys.
Ritvik公司最初仅仅做玩具经销生意，同时也和玩具生产商合作生产国外品牌玩具。成为加拿大最大的玩具经销商之后，Ritvik的业务开始拓展到玩具产业链当中的设计、生产、销售等各个环节，它的注塑成型生产工艺在80年代成为行业领军。
Ritvik later became a vertically integrated company as it expanded. After establishing itself as Canada’s biggest toy distributor, the company started adding plastic injection molding operations, design operations, tooling manufacturing, and marketing services. The company had a leading share of the plastic injection molding market by the early 1980s.
60年代是玩具设计的黄金时期，大量经典玩具在今天还可以见到。Ritvik公司的业务几乎涵盖了全世界所有的经典玩具。
Many of the toys conceived during the 1960s, a golden period of the toy design industry, are still on the market. The company’s line of business almost covers all of the classic toys the world over.
1905年面世的古早拼搭玩具Batima Block
Batima Block, one of the classic building-block products, launched in 1905
20世纪早期，Batima Block等拼搭玩具已经纳入玩具行业分类，风靡一时，而丹麦的乐高在这一领域知名度和销量遥遥领先。但一直对拼搭积木充满兴趣的Victor Bertrand发现，传统的乐高颗粒太小，婴幼儿不好抓握。于是，Victor不顾前辈和朋友的反对，开创了“美高”这个品牌，来创造乐高欠缺的竞争优势—Victor将美高塑料积木全部设计成大颗粒，以适合学前儿童。
Wanting to expand beyond Canada, Victor Bertrand took an interest in construction block sets and saw room for growth despite them being an industry staple since the early years of the 20th century with Batima Block released in 1905 in Belgium. With Lego being the leading construction toy, Bertrand chose to make a similar set. Bertrand ignored friends and advisors as he figured he had two advantages in launching Mega Bloks. He aimed for jumbo sized bricks for the toddlers, which Lego bricks were not designed for, and he felt his expertise in injection molding would give him a price advantage.
大颗粒的拼搭玩具更适合手指不灵活、力气较小的婴幼儿。
Jumbo-sized bricks are more suitable fortoddlers with less flexible fingers and little strength.
80年代，风靡全球的变形金刚几乎占领玩具市场。
In the 1980s the Transformers toy line took the world by storm and dominated the toy market.
1984年，美高积木首次在美国和加拿大的玩具贸易展上展出。大颗粒积木玩具一鸣惊人，美高旋即敲开了领先玩具产业链“玩具反斗城”的大门，在全美和加拿大流行起来。
Mega Bloks were launched simultaneously in Canada and the U.S. at the 1984 toy shows. They were an instant hit! Afterwards he divested of all his other toy activities to focus on further expanding Mega Bloks beyond the 30 countries already achieved.
80年代的玩具，几乎全部面向高龄儿童，且充满暴力。
Nearly all of the toys in the 1980s are targeted at older kids and of violent nature.
到1986年，公司经过17年的连续增长，美高的拼搭玩具市场份额已经位居全球第二，仅次于已有50多年历史的乐高。位于蒙特利尔的美高总部设有国际设计中心和北美最大的玩具厂，数百工作人员每年设计生产出数百万美高积木产品，公司业务延伸至100多个国家，并在11个国家建立办事处。美高成为全球大颗粒积木玩具第一品牌，并且在中大童积木玩具和收藏家的积木类玩具中占领先地位。
By 1986, the company had become the world’s second largest construction set manufacturer, next only to the 50-year-old Lego. Mega’s Montreal-based headquarters is home to its international design centre and North America’s largest toy plant, where millions of construction sets are designed and produced every year. The company has reached more than 100 countries and had its presence in 11 countries. Nowadays it has grown into the world’s top jumbo-sized building block brand and gained dominance in the niche markets for older kids and collectors.
2014年4月20日，全球玩具巨头美泰公司收购加拿大美高。经过48年的锤炼、发展，美高已经成为北美学龄前积木类玩具第一品牌。
Mega Brands was acquired by the toy conglomerate Mattel on 20 April 2014. After 48 years of evolution, the company has established itself as North America’s top construction set brand for toddlers.
►美泰Mattel: 全球第一玩具品牌
Mattel, the world's top toy brand
美泰公司也许并不被大众熟悉，但是芭比娃娃一定如雷贯耳！没错，这就是创造芭比传奇的玩具帝国。
Mattel may not be familiar to you but that’s definitely not the case with Barbie dolls. Mattel, Inc. is the toy giant behind these glamorous dolls.
芭比娃娃诞生于二战后的美国。当时美泰公司创办人露丝·汉德勒,见女儿喜欢玩当时流行的纸娃娃，兴致盎然地帮它们换衣服、换皮包，便想到应该设计一款立体娃娃。而一次在德国度假时，露丝无意间发现了身高 11.5寸，三围39-18-33的德国娃娃“莉莉”。正是这个娃娃激发了露丝的灵感，回到美国后，露丝立刻对莉莉的形象加以改造，让她看上去像玛丽莲· 梦露一般地性感迷人。
Barbie came into being in the post-World War II America. Mattel founder Ruth Handler watched her daughter Barbara play with paper dolls, and noticed that she often enjoyed giving them adult roles. Realizing there could be a gap in the market, Handler came up with the idea of producing a line of adult-bodied dolls. During a trip to Europe in 1956, Ruth Handler came across a German toy doll called Bild Lilli. The adult-figured doll was exactly what Handler had in mind, so she purchased three of them. Upon her return to the United States, Handler redesigned the doll, making her as charming as Marilyn Monro.
世界上第一个芭比娃娃
The world’s first ever Barbie doll
1959年3月9日，世界上第一个金发美女娃娃正式问世，露丝用小女儿芭芭拉的呢称给她命名，从此这位金发美女就叫做“芭比”。50多年来，芭比始终保持着青春、亮丽的形象，曲线玲珑、光彩照人，成为全球最畅销、最受小女孩欢迎的玩偶，曾有每秒钟售出两个Barbie的惊人纪录。芭比娃娃被“Interbrand”公司选为最有价值的玩具品牌，身价高达20亿美元，品牌价值只比《华尔街日报》稍低一点，还高于星巴克、亚曼尼、帮宝适与西门子等品牌。
The doll made its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York on March 9, 1959 and it was given a new name, Barbie, after Handler's daughter Barbara. Over the past 50 years or so, Barbie has maintained her energetic, slender and fabulous appearance and become the world’s most popular doll among little girls, setting record of two dolls sold per second. Barbie has been selected by Interbrand as the most valuable toy brand with a market capitalization of $ 2 billion, higher than that of Starbucks, Giorgio Armani, Pampers, Siemens and so forth, and only second to that of Wall Street Journal.
汉德勒夫妇和芭比
Ruth Handler, her husband and Barbie
随着美泰公司不断壮大，接连收购了费雪玩具、托马斯火车头等世界级的玩具品牌。2014年，美高玩具加入了这个世界上最大的玩具帝国。
As it expands, Mattel acquired a series of world-class toy brands such as Fisher-Price and Thomas & Friends and Mega Brands later in 2004.
拥有芭比娃娃、风火轮车模、费雪、托马斯火车头等子品牌的美泰集团，是全世界最大的玩具公司。
Mattel, the world’s top toy company, boasts lines of products like Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher Price and Thomas & Friends.
1993年，美泰公司收购费雪牌，使其成为玩具业中最受欢迎、最值得信赖的品牌，同时费雪也被认证为全世界十大顶尖品牌之一。
Mattel acquired Fisher-Price in 1993 and afterwards succeeded in turning it into the most trustworthy and established toy brand and one of the world’s top ten brands.
1930 年，由于经济大萧条仍然笼罩全美国的企业，那其实不是创设新事业的最好时机。但是Herman Fisher、Irving Price、Helen Schelle结合了他们不同的制造和零售的经验，创造了费雪玩具公司，也很有信心的在纽约市的国际玩具展上推出了16 个木制玩具。当时他们一定没有预料到，这一历史性的合作，将使费雪牌玩具86年来为世界各地的孩子们的成长带来无穷的欢乐。
Back in 1930 when businesses across the United States were plagued by the Great Depression, it was not the time to launch a new business. Instead, with their different backgrounds in manufacturing and retails, Herman Fisher, Irving Price and Helen Schelle set up Fisher-Price, a toy firm, before releasing 16 wooden toys at the International Toy Fair in New York. At that time, they must haven’t expected this cooperation to bring endless happiness to children around the world over the next decades.
2012年，美泰公司斥资6.8亿美元收购英国HIT娱乐公司，从而获得“托马斯”品牌一事，称得上是当年全球动漫玩具市场的一个“大手笔”。《托马斯和朋友们》的观众与费雪玩具的目标人群主要集中在学龄前儿童，这让“托马斯”面临着学龄前儿童玩具市场的激烈竞争。
In 2012, Mattel bought HIT Entertainment for $ 680 million and took over the Thomas & Friends toy line in a move that came under the spotlight in the global animated film-related toy market. Both the Thomas & Friends television series and Fisher-Price are mainly targeted at preschoolers, exposing the toy line to fierce competition in the preschool niche market.
风靡世界的车模品牌—风火轮
Hot Wheels, the scale die-cast toy car brand that has taken the world by storm
美泰旗下品牌—小黄人
Minions, one of the Mattel products
美泰旗下品牌—汽车总动员
Disney/ Pixar Cars, one of the Mattel products
美泰是一家什么样的公司？是世界第一的玩具王国，是琳琅满目的消费品集散地？还是孩子们心中心驰神往的梦幻乐园？在层出不穷的答案里面，我们更愿意将美泰定位成一个梦工厂，一个能容纳无论孩子还是成人的乌托邦式的造梦工厂。
What kind of business is Mattel? The world’s top toy kingdom or a distribution centre for a wide range of consumer goods, or a wonderland for kids? Yet to us, Mattel is more like Dreamworks that accommodates the utopian fantasies of both kids and adults.
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基于YoungBird公司在大设计产业链的影响力及双方在启蒙、发掘和鼓励年轻设计力量理念上的高度认同，美泰公司旗下的美高积木选择YoungBird成为美高2016公共艺术活动的策展团队及专业顾问； 城市发展策略团队负责人）担任美高公共艺术装置的设计师，将设计营造和积木搭建无缝链接在一起。
YoungBird has been commissioned by Mega Bloks, part of the Mattel toy conglomerate, as the curator and consultancy for its 2016 Public Art Program based on its huge influence on the design industry and the mission of inspiring, discovering and encouraging young designers that the two sides share. We have invited Mr. Liu Hung-Chih, the globally renowned urban planner and senior vice president of AECOM Asia Pacific to serve as the principal designer of this public art installation in an attempt to blend design and building blocks perfectly.