Welcome
This website is home to Kim Vandenbroucke and Brainy Chick, Inc.
Splitting her time between the Toy and Game industry and the world of brainstorming and innovation, Kim has a wide variety of experience and expertise to that can help you achieve your goals in a broad range of projects. Please take some time to look around.
Contact Kim for more information: TheBrainyChick@gmail.com
Games and Toys
Even though Kim fell into the world of toy and games, she’s been very successful both inventing and developing new products, line extensions and game play. So whether you need a new game developed around a mechanical feature or license, 1000 trivia questions on a specific topic or new concepts to expand a current product line Kim would be happy to discuss the project. Nothing is too big, too small or too out of the ordinary.
- Toy and Game Concept Generation
- Game Play Development
- Game Design
- Line Extensions
- Trivia and Question Writing
- Play Testing
- Prototypes
- Game Directions
- Electronic Toy/Game Mapping
Clients: Hasbro, Mattel, Pressman Toy, Winning Moves, RC2/Learning Curve, Cranium, Daddy-O and many others.
Brainstorming
Having a background in creative thinking, Kim started her brainstorming facilitation career within the confines of Meyer/Glass Design where she was given the odd, but very difficult task of boosting the creativity and concept generation of a dozen very secretive toy and game designers. Learning that both “über-creatives” and self-professed “uncreatives” can both benefit from an outside spark, Kim started to develop her method for innovative thinking programs. She believes that everyone has the ability to come up with the next big idea whether it be a new product, brand, marketing idea, promotional concept, or line extension. Over the last several years Kim has developed techniques and exercises to help individuals, small and large groups ideate creative, strategic solutions to any problem statement. The key is to push thinking past the expected all the way out to the unrealistic and uncomfortable but then slowly pull back and you’ll find the best ideas lie somewhere in between.
Kim has facilitated for a wide array of companies and organizations tailoring each session to the specific needs of the group. She has experience in a variety of industries including packaged foods, food service, hotel service, paper products, juvenile products and hardware. She also branches out and works as a “brain-for-hire” and assists businesses and innovation consultancies by contributing an outside perspective to boost creative thinking. Her realistic yet out-of-the-box thinking has helped develop creative strategic solutions to numerous unusual challenges.
- Brainstorming Session Development
- Brainstorming Facilitation
- Creative Problem Solving
- Rapid Concept Generation
- Line Extensions
- Naming and Branding
Portfolio
A small sample…
Bio
Kim Vandenbroucke is always thinking. Her friends may call it a curse – especially when she pulls out a notebook while they’re mid-sentence – but she thinks it’s a blessing. Whether Kim is inventing new products, developing a new brainstorming exercise or dreaming up new game play, her mind is always on the go. She’s an idea person. In fact, she’s been tapped by some of the biggest names in innovation consultancy to participate in brainstorming sessions for the world’s top brands and companies. Her special blend of creativity and realism develops unique and exciting, but actionable ideas.
When not working as a brain-for-hire, Kim uses her degree in industrial design from the University of Illinois and background in creative thinking to stimulate others to develop new products, brands, marketing concepts, etc. through brainstorming sessions and workshops.
Within the toy and game industry Kim has invented and developed a variety of toys, games and brands. Working with organizations like Mattel, Hasbro, Winning Moves, Cranium, Zoo Games and Pressman Toy, her successes range from mass-market items including Hasbro’s Cover to Cover, Pressman’s Zathura and Fantastic Four and Mattel’s Pixel Chix: Secret Life of Pets to smaller specialty games like Winning Moves’ Beat the Count.
In 2008, Kim was a featured speaker at the Toy and Game Inventor’s Expo, part of the Chicago Toy and Game Fair that takes place annually at Chicago’s Navy Pier. Formerly an inventor at the prestigious Meyer/Glass Design invention studio, a spin off of the original Marvin Glass & Associates studio, she is an expert on game play development, trivia writing, prototyping and concept design.
While Kim may not have ever anticipated having a career in the toy and game invention business, she proudly stands with one foot in the toy and game aisle and the other in the innovation world.
Blog
Right now people get to read reviews on books, movies, computer and video games — but you never see reviews on games you’d find in the game aisle. And to be honest, I’m the type of person who will recommend games to total strangers if they look perplexed at my local Target so I started a game review site. The Game Aisle tells you which games are worth your money, where you can find them and something about the inventor that came up with it.
Come see what it’s all about: www.TheGameAisle.com
Contact
Got questions?
Project ideas?
Just want to know more about Kim Vandenbroucke or Brainy Chick?
Please email: TheBrainyChick@gmail.com