North Bay Instructor Wins International Toy & Game Award

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — A Sonoma County artist, artisan, inventor and instructor who has been honing his craft since childhood was recently honored as part of the 2021 Toy & Game International Excellence Awards, or TAGIES.

The awards honor toy and game industry innovators, designers and marketers. Santa Rosa Junior College Art and Design Instructor Michael McGinnis won the "Innovative Art and Design Visuals of the Year" award for his Perplexus GO! Harry Potter Golden Snitch, the latest iteration of the three-dimensional labyrinth game McGinnis co-created with toy inventors Brian Clemens and Dan Klitsner of KID group in San Francisco.

Perplexus is a complex, three-dimensional labyrinth, traced by a ball bearing. It is a skill and action game that helps develop hand-eye coordination and spatial skills. There is only one rule: Do not fall off the track. Perplexus is easy to learn by picking it up and playing. Mastering it is the challenge, according to McGinnis, who as a child was fascinated with labyrinth games and enjoyed creating his own designs.

In the 1970s, McGinnis began sketching his ideas for three-dimensional labyrinths. Beginning in high school, McGinnis created prototypes for his own games. While McGinnis was studying sculpture at Santa Rosa Junior College, an instructor encouraged him to contact toy and game companies. He has been perfecting and creating new versions of his game ever since.

The Perplexus line has won more than 30 awards since 2010 from various groups. In 2013, McGinnis’s game design, Perplexus EPIC, won the Toy of The Year award.

"If it had not been for an art instructor more than 30 years ago, my entire body of work would never have occurred," McGinnis said.

According to McGinnis, the driving force behind his sculptural work is human interaction, whether as a hand-held game or a giant work of art. He creates interactive Superplexus sculptures for private collections, museums and other public venues using various materials including Finnish birch aircraft plywood, acrylic domes, 304 stainless steel, limestone, Brazilian cherry wood and ink. His sculptures provide immersive environments for the audience to experience spatial and kinesthetic growth.

For SRJC’s 100th anniversary, McGinnis and his students collaborated with SRJC’s Engineering Club to fabricate Veritas, a sculpture reflecting the search for truth in its labyrinthine path of interconnected elements. Veritas stands on a base covering the time capsule placed in SRJC’s Santa Rosa campus quad.

"I feel it is important to remain an instructor of sculpture and design," McGinnis said. "There is an incredible opportunity to give to others the knowledge I've gained through my creative life."