01 · Invent
Toys & games from zero
Original mechanics, prototyped by hand and playtested until they earn their keep — then protected, so the value sits in something owned.
DO The person behind the studio
The studio stays small so the ideas can be big.
I'm Isaac Tinto — a toy and game inventor and product designer, and the founder and owner of Zucchi Studio. I started it (first under the name Tintomedia) with one conviction: the best things to make are the ones people enjoy. A tile that snaps when you spin it. A word game you can hold. A box worth keeping. This page is the why.
Why this studio exists
Pleasurable experiences, on purpose.
I kept noticing the same thing: the products people love aren't the loudest ones. They're the ones that feel good to use — a mechanic that clicks, a story a family argues over, packaging you don't throw away.
So the studio has one job: invent and design pleasurable experiences — toys, games, brands, and products — and stay small enough that I'm inside every one of them. No account layer, no hand-offs. The person who pitches the idea is the person who drew it, prototyped it, and filed the patent.
That's also why we license and partner rather than just bill hours. Some of what we make is for clients. Some of it is ours — invented here, protected here, and taken out into the world.
And the process stays hands-first. Ideas start as sketches, cardboard, and playtests — judged by how they feel in someone's hands. AI enters only as the last phase of that creative process: to refine, accelerate, and produce what has already been invented by a person.
6
Original games optioned & licensed
10+
Brands & products shipped for clients
4
Countries the work has shipped in
+500%
Traffic lift on a single client rebrand
What I actually do
Invent. Design. Take it to market.
02 · Design
Brands, products & packaging
Design-thinking work for clients — identity, industrial design, packaging, and the digital platforms that carry them — from first sketch to shelf-ready.
03 · Take to market
Licensing & partnerships
Inventions pitched to publishers, manufacturers, and media partners — as licensed games, boxed products, or co-developed IP.
The best products aren't the loudest ones. They're the ones that feel good to use.— Isaac Tinto
Bio
The official bio.
The version you can lift for a deck, an article, or an event program.
Isaac Tinto is a toy and game inventor, product designer, and the founder and owner of Zucchi Studio (formerly Tintomedia), an independent design studio working between Los Angeles and Barcelona. He invents, designs, and licenses original toys, games, and brands — from patent-pending game mechanics to brand platforms for clients including SuKarne and Catalan Wines USA.
Isaac's work spans toy invention, game design, industrial design, packaging design, and brand strategy — taken from first sketch to shelf-ready product. His studio has had six original games optioned and licensed, shipped ten-plus brands and products across four countries, and holds patent-pending inventions in the daily-puzzle space. He deliberately keeps the studio small: every project is designed, prototyped, and pitched by the owner himself. His process is craft-first — sketching, hand prototyping, and playtesting — with AI used only in the final phase of the creative process, to refine and produce what has already been invented by hand.
He presents original concepts at international toy and game industry events, and develops original IP with partners in Europe and the United States.
How I think about AI
The tsunami is not optional. Surfing is.
I've been designing since before I can remember. Drawing came before writing. Making things is not what I do, it's how I understand the world.
Then AI arrived. It didn't ask my permission, or yours. It came like a tsunami, and a wave that size leaves two choices: get swallowed, or learn to ride it.
I chose to ride it. On my terms.
01
Human first, because that's where invention lives
My ideas still start as sketches, cardboard, and playtests, judged by how they feel in someone's hands. That's not nostalgia. It's the part of the process where invention actually happens, and no model does it for me. My rule was set long before the industry started writing theirs: I invent, the machine assists.
02
Everyone's default. Not my center.
Out there, AI is already the default, the way the computer was, the way the camera was. Pretending otherwise would be dishonest, I use it every day. But a tool being everywhere doesn't earn it the center of my process. In my hands it stays an instrument: used deliberately, late, to refine and produce what I've already invented. Knowing a tool deeply is also how I know where it doesn't belong.
03
Divergence is the only moat
Here's what worries me. Everyone now has the same models, trained on the same everything. Same question, same answer. The result is a flood of competent sameness, and sameness is invisible. When average creativity becomes a commodity, divergent thinking becomes the entire game. The strange idea. The mechanic nobody prompted for. The taste to know which one matters.
The machine raises the floor. A person still sets the ceiling.
I teach this too
I run hands-on workshops for agencies and creative teams, most recently a 25-person session for Penta: what to automate, what to protect, and how to keep a team thinking divergently when the tools push everyone toward the same output.
— Isaac Tintó, founder, Zucchi Studio
Right now
Pitching original game inventions at international industry events.
Developing an original character IP with European partners.
Running a daily puzzle game, live on the web — invented, engineered, and branded in-studio.
Find him
Portfolio — zucchistudio.com/#work
Studio inquiries — start a conversation
Let's make the thing people remember.
Now booking new work · Los Angeles · Portland · Barcelona