For those with imaginative souls and a love of tinkering, there are few better role models than Rube Goldberg, a 20th century inventor and cartoonist known for designing incredibly complex and whimsical machines that perform simple tasks — buttering a piece of toast, for example.

Their machine doesn’t butter anything. But the “Idea Generator” Westport’s Brian Moses, spouse Lydia Sylva and son Gryffin, 8, designed over the winter was good enough to win a national playground design competition, and could one day end up in production.

“We were speechless,” Brian said of the day last month when they got the news that their idea was deemed best out of hundreds of entries received in their category. “We couldn’t believe it!”

The family’s ‘Idea Generator’ playground took first place in the senior division of a contest sponsored by the Rube Goldberg Institute and Miracle Recreation, a commercial playground company. Though it currently exists only on paper, the playground uses six simple machines — lever, pulley, inclined plane, wedge, screw, and wheel and axle — that must all be activated simultaneously to light a giant “Big Idea’ lightbulb at the top of the structure.

Moses said the concept was built on the idea that “collaboration is a celebration,” and he and Gryffin spent the winter brainstorming ideas, drawing out designs and homing in on a completed entry.

“I wanted it to be a fun project where we could all be involved,” Moses said.

Creativity abounds in the Moses household, a converted church off Forge Road filled with workshops, a swing and fire pole in the living room, and markers, paper and paint everywhere. Moses first heard about the contest from a friend who forwarded him the details last summer. He put it on shelf at the time but “it was nagging at me” and by December, he and Gryffin had started drawing.

“We wanted to capture the spirit of Rube Goldberg, not only the inventiveness of it, but also the whimsical nature” of the machines, he said. “We wanted it to be inclusive, something that everyone could use. We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could use simple machines and encourage (users) to collaborate and light the bulb?'”

“It was important to us to have kids figuring out things together in real life,” he said. “In this age group, it’s important for their mental development to be out there and doing things.”

Friday morning, Moses pulled out a handful of sketchbooks the family had filled over the winter. They’re filled with dozens of drawings of various parts of the playground, copious notes scrawled in the margins and wherever else there’s room, and tantalizing descriptions of each part: An ‘Infinity barrel,’ ‘The abyss of fun,’ and the like.

“The kids discover on the fly, through discovery and play, how their collaboration pays off, Moses said. “It teaches the value of collaboration and working together on a task.”

Thrill of invention

Though their creation does not yet exist in physical form, the Moses family will travel to Pennsylvania in June to receive their award, and while there will meet with playground designers to hone their idea further.

Once done, it will take 18 months or more for the playground to take shape. Though they’ve been told the completed structure will eventually be built and installed, they don’t know where in the states that will be.

“It would be great if it was” somewhere within driving distance,” Moses said. “We’d go!”