Cas Holman

Last updated
Cas Holman khs hwlmn.jpg
Cas Holman

Cas Holman (born 1974) is an American author [1] and designer of toys and spaces [2] that emphasize creativity through unstructured play. [3] Previously a professor at Syracuse University [4] and the Rhode Island School of Design, [5] [6] , Holman is the founder and principal designer of the toy company Heroes Will Rise. [7] , designing for schools, museums, and playgrounds to promote collaborative, hands-on learning. [8]

Contents

Holman is the subject of an episode of the Netflix series Abstract: The Art of Design titled "Cas Holman: Design for Play," [9] focusing on her design philosophies.

She is the author with Lydia Denworth of Playful: How Play Shifts Our Thinking, Inspires Connection, and Sparks Creativity, published by Avery Publishing, a division of Penguin Random House, in October 2025. [1]

Early life and education

Cas grew up in a small town in Northern California, and the outdoors were a source of early inspiration and education. [10] Cas was influenced early on through hands-on play by her mom, a Montessori teacher, and by her stepdad, a mechanic whose garage was a space for tinkering, tool-use, and seeing how things worked. [11]

During time off from college, Cas spent a year and a half as a research assistant alongside her aunt and uncle, herpetologists researching biodiversity, on the Galápagos Islands. Cas graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1998 [12] , and earned an M.F.A in Fine Art from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2005. [13]

Career

In 2003, Holman designed Geemo, a toy with flexible, magnetic limbs [12] inspired by bone marrow [9] . Geemo launched at the Museum of Modern Art’s Design Store in 2007 [12] and is in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. [14]

In 2011, she designed the High Line Children’s Workyard Kit in collaboration with Friends of the High Line Park, which brought loose parts play into a prominent public park setting. [15] [16] The initiative subsequently evolved into Holman's Rigamajig line of collaborative play sets, which have been implemented in schools and museum play spaces internationally. [17] [18] Rigamajig was highlighted in Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children (2016) as a tool that encourages children to build moving structures through open-ended play, fostering creativity and early engineering skills. [3] It was also the subject of a research study by Purdue University and Concordia indicating that Rigamajig play materials promote collaborative group interaction and support the development of leadership skills. [19]

Partnering with Anji Play (2014–2020), she collaborated with Cheng Xueqin to design learning materials for over 130 schools in China and supported pilot programs in the United States. [20]

After spending two decades supporting teams at organizations such as Google, Nike, Disney Imagineering, and the LEGO Foundation, she now focuses on helping individuals develop leadership skills through approaches grounded in play. [1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Robinson, Cheryl. "Sandbox To Boardroom—How Adult Play Transforms Leadership". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2025-08-24. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  2. ↑ Reggev, Kate (2019-10-04). "Toy Designer Cas Holman Is Obliterating Old Notions of Play". Dwell. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  3. 1 2 Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy (2016-05-15). Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells us About Raising Successful Children (1st ed.). APA. p. 200. ISBN   978-1433822391. Take Rigamajig, an invention by Cas Holman that encourages kids to make moving structures out of big, beautiful wooden pieces that interconnect. A short look at her demonstration video tells the story of what children can do if given the tools, the safe space, and the time to explore. They organically turn into engineers.
  4. ↑ "VPA's Cas Holman wins Design Distinction from I.D. Magazine". SU News. Retrieved 2019-01-07.
  5. ↑ "Cas Holman | Faculty | Industrial Design | RISD". www.risd.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-07.
  6. ↑ "Cas Holman". Cas Holman. Retrieved 2024-01-15.
  7. ↑ Castella, Krystina (2018-11-08). Designing for Kids: Creating for Playing, Learning, and Growing. Routledge. ISBN   9781351968867.
  8. ↑ "Cas Holman: Design for Play | Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum". 2021-04-27. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  9. 1 2 "Abstract: The Art of Design". Netflix.com. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
  10. ↑ McLaughlin, Aimée (2020-01-10). "Cas Holman on the possibilities of play". Creative Review. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  11. ↑ Arad, Shoham (2011-08-17). "Three Keys To Creative Kid Design, From The Creator Of High Line Playground". Fast Company. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  12. 1 2 3 Rheingold, Howard (December 2, 2015). "Personal Story: Cas Holman". Connected Learning Alliance. Retrieved October 2, 2025.
  13. ↑ Coe, Amanda (2020-01-27). "Lecture: Cas Holman | Cranbrook Academy of Art | 2020-02-11 18:00:00 | Cranbrook Events". Cranbrook Academy of Art. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  14. ↑ "Geemo, Cas Holman". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved October 2, 2025.
  15. ↑ Lindner, Christopher; Rosa, Brian (2017-05-09). Deconstructing the High Line: Postindustrial Urbanism and the Rise of the Elevated Park. Rutgers University Press. p. 31. ISBN   9780813576459. ...we commissioned and build the High Line Children's Workyard Kit in 2011, a portable kit of parts designed by Abby and Cas Holman to allow children to build anything in their imagination, harking back to the High Line's industrial heritage.
  16. ↑ "What's Up with the Whitney: Family Programs at the High Line". whitney.org. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  17. ↑ Birks, Kimberlie (2018-05-09). Design for Children. Phaidon Press Limited. p. 224. ISBN   9780714875194. Launched in 2011, Rigamajig accommodates between two to twenty children playing under supervision. Widely seen as a tool to encourage creativity, unstructured play and process over outcome, the kit has been adopted by museums, classrooms, and parks.
  18. ↑ Olson, Yadira Sanchez. "North Chicago resource agency to unveil 'Rigamajig' for children of veterans". Lake County News-Sun. Retrieved 2019-01-07.
  19. ↑ Department of Education Concordia University Montreal, Quebec Department of Human Development and Family Studies Purdue University West Lafayette (2019-12-31). The Effects of Rigamajig® Play Materials on Elementary Children’s Early Development, Learning, and Interest in STEM.
  20. ↑ Lange, Alexandra (2019-10-04). "Cas Holman's Search for the Ideal Playground". The New Yorker. ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved 2025-12-20.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.