Dezeen Magazine

Czech designer aims to tackle sex-toy stereotypes with range of eggs and a vibrator

Czech designer Anna Maresova's Whoop.de.doo sex toys for women are designed to avoid being "blatantly vulgar or weird".

The range includes a vibrator, a set of balls – designed to help women strengthen their vaginal wall and pelvic muscles to increase the intensity of their orgasms – and two vibrating eggs on flexible sticks, which can be used for stimulation both internally and externally.

The minimal, rounded designs are covered in white silicone and are meant to be instantly recognisable as sex toys, but avoid being "blatantly vulgar or weird," to encourage women to buy and talk about the objects without feeling embarrassed.

Whoop.de.doo sex toys by Anna Maresova

"Beauty lies in simplicity – there are no obscenities, no gimmicks, no gadgets," Maresova told Dezeen. "The devices are covered head to toe in medical-grade silicone – no gaps, no openings, nothing sticking out, no place for bacteria to grab hold and multiply."

The designs grew out of Maresova's thesis studies on erotic aids for women for her master's degree at the Faculty of Art and Design of JE Purkyne University in Usti and Labem.

"There never seems to be anything on the market that doesn't evoke some degree of distaste or gimmicky-ness or feelings of raunchiness," said Maresova. "Sex toys are commonly sold in sex shops, where you immediately get smacked in the face with vulgarities and porno. It's a big turn-off for lots of people."

Whoop.de.doo sex toys by Anna Maresova

"The core of the idea lay in the challenge of designing something that would be simple and inviting and capable of appealing to a wider group of women. I wanted to create sex toys that could break through the various misgivings in society."

The first product she designed and developed was the Venus Balls. Two 32-millimetre diameter balls are attached together like lollipops on a flexible stick, and the design comes in two variations – one with glass inner balls that weigh 41 grams, which is designed for women who have recently experienced childbirth, and one with steel inner balls that weigh 65 grams to deliver a "more intense workout". The inner balls move inside a silicone casing to create a vibration effect.

Whoop.de.doo sex toys by Anna Maresova

A fundraising round to start production on the Vibrator design is currently underway on crowd funding platform Indiegogo. The flexible, tapered-oval tip for internal use is balanced by a wider rounded control end with a single large indent with two buttons to control vibrations modes and intensity, indicated by braille dots on the surface.

"The enlarged control end is the result of consultation with various doctors, who spoke of surprisingly large numbers of patients requiring surgical extraction of vibrators that had the same circumference along the entire length," said Maresova.

The device comes with a case and can be recharged via USB.

Whoop.de.doo sex toys by Anna Maresova

Maresova plans to put the Vibration Eggs – one oval-shaped and one shaped like a rounded rectangle – into production in 2016.

"We know we're doing something right because we've had women of all ages (one of our earliest customers is a 60 year-old woman whose husband is much older and can't have sex anymore) telling us that they'd never have dreamed of getting a sex toy, but that they feel good about Whoop.de.doo and want to try it," said Maresova.

Other recent experiments in sex toy design include the Smile Makers – a range of vibrators shaped in response to typical female fantasies – and a USB-chargeable pendant vibrator that doubles as a necklace.