Play Your Way is a unique children’s play space promoting free play. The 14-metre squared, branded touring arena - which is designed to encourage participation in active play and games by children who tend to shy away from the rigid rules of organised sport - toured five cities across Europe in just 21 days.
Play Your Way is a unique children’s play space promoting free play. The 14-metre squared, branded touring arena - which is designed to encourage participation in active play and games by children who tend to shy away from the rigid rules of organised sport - toured five cities across Europe in just 21 days.
Steel play area using Coala materials
The Concept
The Play Your Way campaign was delivered by Steel Creative Network in conjunction with HarrimanSteel, the design agency of global sporting goods retailer Intersport who, along with Nike and Italian sports retailer Cisalfa, set out to create an engaging pop-up play space for children aged 8 to 12.
Steel Creative Network are specialists in campaign and event delivery. To ensure Play Your Way achieved its goals effectively and safely, they worked closely with specialist Play Innovation and received sign-off from a safety perspective from ROSPA.
The Aim
To make the experience memorable for children, it was important that the space was fun and visually striking, as well as being sufficiently agile to pack into a truck for transportation. The Play Your Way arena is all about pure play and exploration. It features zoned areas built around a central climbing/activity cube, with each zone aimed towards a different skill to inspire play and development. Ease of movement between the different zones is intrinsic to the exploratory feel.
Children are encouraged to create games from an array of equipment and props, including:
- Deconstructed floor graphic marking
- A circular ping-pong table
- Irregular shaped basket hoops
- Bespoke balance equipment
- Central play cubes
Key to the success of the Play Your Way arena was the selection of materials that would withstand being packed and unpacked multiple times as well as being run and jumped on by hundreds of children. In particular, the flooring needed to be capable of withstanding considerable wear and tear.
The Result
The Play Your Way arena ‘popped up’ in five cities: Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Mannheim and Heilbronn in Germany and Milan and Rome in Italy.
I have worked in the print and event area for many years and I am truly delighted by the quality and performance of Coala 1D 100 Gloss White P. It withstood our many installations and hundreds of children running all over it – totally amazing!
Richard Steel of Steel Creative Network
Watch the video to see Play Your Way in action!
Product information
Coala 1D 100 Gloss White Permanent Adhesive Vinyl
Coala 1D 100 Gloss White P is a monomeric, gloss white vinyl with a clear acrylic adhesive. Its excellent opacity and flatness make it ideal for short to medium term (up to 4 years) indoor and outdoor applications on flat surfaces. Certified for HP latex inks, it is also suitable for solvent, eco solvent and UV inkjet printing technologies.
