Korko Collection

Made by nature

project developed for Korko

New line
development

Renewable material
for sustainable toys

Product
optimization

A toddler in a brown sweater and white hat crouches on a leaf-covered wooden path, holding a leaf, with cork bowling pins and a ball in front of him outdoors during autumn. Little Skittles by Korko.

Designing with cork

The projects we developed for Korko began with the company’s ambition to offer sustainable toys, built around cork’s remarkable properties:

  • Soft and quiet material

  • Lightweight

  • Anti-bacterial qualities

With this in mind, we focused on transforming these features into the foundation of the play experience, creating designs that spark imagination and encourage learning.

Exploring the natural qualities of a sustainable material

Our contribution

Magnifying glass icon with a beige circle background.

Research

Strategy

Line drawing of a light bulb with a golden background and small lines indicating light emission.

Concept

Line drawing of a pencil on a circular background.

Identity

Illustration of a paint palette with a paintbrush resting on it in front of a full moon.

Design

Illustration of two gears over a peach-colored circle background.

Development

A line drawing of a cube with motion lines, indicating that it is moving or falling.

Communication

A speech bubble icon with a chat bubble outline inside it, on a circular background.
Emoticon graphics zoom on a cork acorn. By Korko.
Close-up of a colorful wooden and cork children's toy with a pink pillar, surrounded by pastel-colored circular parts. By Korko.
Child's foot with a car-like toy in the shape of a cork rabbit with soft green felt ears attached to a string. By Korko.
Child's hand reaching to pick up a red and pink half-sphere, with several geometric shaped balls, some remain uncolored, some have blue and beige painted halves, placed on a wooden surface. By Korko.
Child's hand reaching to touch a wooden toy race car with a smiling face design. By Korko.
Child playing with a toy train made of wood and green cork with a graphic of a fox on a beige carpet. By Korko.
Diagram showing the process of creating eco-friendly toys with natural materials and pigments, including steps like pigment spraying, material mixing, compression molding, and connecting children with natural materials. Toys designed By Korko

behind the scenes

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behind the scenes ~

A soft & quiet toy line

From the outset, cork proved the perfect match for developing a toy range for toddlers. The first collection focused on classic toys that could be enhanced by the material’s unique qualities. These toys supported children’s mental and motor skills safely, while also delighting their sense of touch with cork’s soft texture. For this collection we fully developed some products, and for others, we cooperated on the graphics.

Over time, we extended the designs to older age groups, exploring the world of movement with toys such as golf and croquet sets, making the most of cork’s lightweight and sound-absorbing properties.

Cork does, however, present certain limitations in production and design. Rather than treating these as obstacles, we embraced them as opportunities to shape creative solutions.

Child playing with colorful cork diamond shapes placed in a hexagonal wooden tray. By Korko.
Stack of three colored acorns with faces drawn on, resembling happy, surprised, and sad expressions, balanced on a decorative base. By Korko.
A little girl in a pink jumpsuit stacking cork blocks with leaf carvings on a wooden table. By Korko.
A child throws a cork ball at falling cork pins on a wooden floor. By Korko.
Child in gray sweater and light blue jeans practicing golf indoors with a toy golf set, including a club and ball, on a wooden floor in a cozy living room. By Korko.
Child in beige pants and white shirt playing with colorful wooden and cork toy cars on a wooden floor. By Korko.
A young girl with long hair and a brown cardigan smiling while playing with colorful cork blocks on a table in a bright room. By Korko.
A little girl plays golf indoors on a wooden floor, holds a toy golf club and is about to hit cork golf balls at plastic bows with numbered labels. By Korko.

Visual identity, naturally inspired

We also collaborated on defining the brand identity. With its strong environmental focus, both in communication and in its products, we drew inspiration from Portugal’s cork forests and chose the owl as the brand’s mascot.

That’s how Coco was born: a soft, quiet owl featured in the toys, who also guides the brand’s communication both online and on packaging. Alongside Coco, we created his forest friends, the hedgehog, fox, and bear, who appear in the products as playful companions to add variety. The illustration style is soft and rounded, creating a calm and reassuring effect.

The colour palette follows the same principles of softness and naturalness, blending harmoniously with the natural tones of wood and cork, while appealing to the target age group of children.

Color palette with seven Pantone colors and a cartoon owl character, Coco the Howl, depicted in four different poses.

Main colours

Four cute cartoon woodland animals: an owl, a hedgehog, a fox, and a bear standing side by side. All character are part ok Korko's family

The friends

A color palette showing various Pantone colors with their names, color codes, and hex values, including purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, brown, beige, cork, and white used in Korko's projects and characters.

Colour palette

The Full Collection

Korko's collection of colorful cork toys including balls, stacking blocks, toy cars, balancing sticks, animal figures and building blocks.