PLAYin: a Grown-up Play Experience by LinkedIn

Graduate Thesis Project: PLAYin, a Grown-up Play Experience by LinkedIn

Bring back recess! This experience is proposed as a 3-month pop-up play experience specifically for adults, composed of 11 different individual and group-based playscapes designed to encourage them to reignite their innate need for gross-motor play. Physical play is the quickest way to break through the hesitation that many adults have built up over time, since many have not played since childhood. As a proposed extension of LinkedIn’s re-branding strategy of warmth, inclusion, and community, this exhibit experience allows adults to understand that within play lies the ability to connect with others. It also exposes the value of incorporating play into their daily schedule while cultivating the overall wellness benefits of spontaneous, free, and playful movement.

*PLAYin is a published academic work by ProQuest Dissertation Publishing

Exhibition entrance from Pine St

Proposed as a 3-month pop-up experience, PLAYin is set up inside a well-lit and accessible public atrium space.

Venue: 60 Wall St Atrium

The Deutsche Bank Building (NYC Financial District) atrium is part of the NYC Privately-Owned Public Spaces (POPS) and is open to the public daily. Its existing conditions and accessibility make it an ideal site for a temporary exhibition.

Concept Bubble Diagram & Grasping the Value of Play

In my Venn diagram (left), I explore the many ways that gross-motor play is a part of human behavior and is to our benefit to continue through adulthood. My napkin sketch (right) illustrates how I see play as an active rest for the mind.

Graphic Look & Feel/Logo

The graphics for PLAYin utilize the existing color palette and shapes from LinkedIn’s branding guidelines (bottom left). Figures are illustrated in a colorful stamp style (top left), and a playful sketchy twist is applied to the sliced circle and square shapes, and to the overall PLAYin logo (right).

Graphics/Advertising Campaign

Promotional poster designs displayed in high traffic areas throughout the city

Graphics/Wayfinding

External decals set in the Lower Manhattan area guide passersby in the direction of the atrium.

Environmental Graphics: Windows

Outdoor-grade decals applied to atrium windows; fiberglass half-spheres applied to the window mullions

Environmental Graphics Samples

Includes designs for introductory area, sign-in kiosks, area stantions, column wraps, and additional signage.

General Floor Plan and Axonometric Diagram

PLAYin takes up approximately 7,270 sq. ft of the atrium space, leaving open the area along the right corridor for passersby and access to the retail shops within. Within the exhibition is a non-linear set up of 11 activities for visitors to explore.

Pre-signup & Kiosks

Step 1. Visitors will login to their LinkedIn account and find the PLAYin link on their landing page. Can be done prior to visit or on-site.

Step 2. The PLAYin landing page gives visitors a summary of the experience

Step 3. Sign up as an individual or group

The PLAYin kiosks located at both entrances into the exhibit allows visitors to check in from pre-signup or sign-up onsite

Sketchbook

Concept sketches for the activities within the exhibit experience, logo, and collateral

Sketch Models

Foam-core study model representing the site, the experiential space in-situ, and a mockup of the “High 5 Hands” activity

The Playscapes

Each playscape is different, accommodating individual or group play. Environmental graphics on the columns display the names of each activity, while freestanding stanchions show the activity name with a description and an “endorphin meter” showing how leisurely or how active it is.

Facilitators & Collateral

In order to encourage adults to get past their hesitation to cut loose and play, this exhibit is facilitated by Hype People who greet and assist visitors, give demos of how to play any of the activities, take your photo, and hand out giveaways.

Giveaways include a pamphlet on incorporating play into work/life balance, your stylized photo on a key-chain, and a branded desktop toy.