Gogo and Martin were my son's first imaginary friends. They were two little monsters that lived in the wall behind an invisible door. Or sometimes in a tree in the park. Or inside the shoe you suddenly couldn't find. Or there, on that door handle... They could pop up just about anywhere we went, and inspired so many games and adventures. And the most amazing thing was that all of these stories came from a child's imagination, without any help at all from me.
My name is Andrée. I am an artist, a designer and a teacher. And then I became a mom, and everything changed. While I knew all about the importance of imagination in being able to think your way out of a problem, it wasn’t until I got to watch my son at play that I started to see what a huge piece of the puzzle it is in the way we understand and learn about the world around us.
I decided to try and help foster this natural curiosity about the world by designing toys and accessories that encourage imaginative play. So I started Gogo and Martin, a new brand for kids. I like to think of us as imagination outfitters. Everything we make is designed to invite children to tell their own stories about what they see.
Why do stories matter?
We believe that stories help us make sense of what we see around us. For children, those stories are everything. And it turns out that telling a story is a lot like solving a problem: it uses the very same skills and depends entirely on imagination.
All great adventures begin with a story. We believe that kids who learn to tell their own stories learn to see possibility everywhere. They learn how to be problem-solvers, world-builders and fixers of broken things.
We make tools for boundless imaginations, because we believe that kids have a lot to teach us about the way their world should be. All we need to do is listen.
