Many of the greatest products for children are designed by parents. Logical — parents are the end users of a huge variety of products. As men and women become mums and dads and step out of their careers and into parenthood they bring with them all sorts of knowledge and experience. Such is the case for New Zealand mum Joanna Rusher. Joanna is the designer and owner of a new product called Wallfly® .

Wallfly® is a range of vinyl wall-graphics – think soft removable stickers – for kids' rooms and playrooms and even nurseries.  Joanna has a family of five girls and has observed that as they grew up their rooms didn’t quite grow with them — the 10-year-old still had pink curtains and pictures of teddies on the wall. This is not exactly what a 10-year-old thinks of as cool, but changing the décor in a room is not a five-minute job. Traditionally this means re-wallpapering or painting, something a busy mum just cannot find the time to do. So, with a background in design and business, it was really only going to be a matter of time before Joanna found a solution for this problem.

She thought, "Wouldn’t it be great if there was a product you could use to decorate a room and then when you felt like changing the décor all you would need to do was take it off and find a more age-appropriate style for the child without having to re-wallpaper or paint a room?”

Research and planning began and this was the start of a process which included lots of testing of different types of materials and designs. Joanna is the owner of SIP, the company that brings a range of innovative products to New Zealand. “As an importer I now have even more respect for the brands I represent. Having an idea is one thing; having a finished product is something else. I have found every aspect fun and exciting and have enjoyed it immensely. However, I have also been incredibly frustrated and surprised by how much work is involved in making a quality product. We have gone to great lengths to test the material, as we needed to make sure it was totally re-positionable and removable. We also wanted the product to encourage creativity in children and to be a product that children can handle.”

Being in the design industry and being creative herself, Joanna was inspired to produce a product that was fresh and exciting and that modern parents could relate to. “I am told again and again, by parents, how hard it is to find products for their children that reflect their contemporary tastes. I wanted to respect this and make the designs modern and fresh and yet still fun for kids. For the nursery, we created some cute little characters and have also got the traditional pink and blue dots which have a very modern look.”

The Wallfly® range is available in shops from September and a website is also being built. For more information and a list of stockists you can visit www.sip.sinot.co.nz or call 09 414 4644.