Playground gets Redd in the swing

Redd is looking to add lucrative private clients to its portfolio of corporate projects, following a children’s playground project the consultancy is completing for a private estate in Cannes, France.

The project is due for completion in the autumn, although final designs have now been approved, says Redd creative head Daniel Lister. The consultancy is in discussions with two other private clients for one-off schemes.

Of the two other private jobs in the pipeline, one is an identity for a stately home in the UK, which will work across staff uniforms and stationery. The other is to improve a feature of another ‘very prominent’ UK residence, says Lister, adding that private clients now account for around a quarter of the consultancy’s business.

The family that has commissioned the playground does not wish to be identified, but briefed Redd to deliver a design containing an educational element.

‘Play areas still tend to be pretty basic. But this is not just swings. The most important thing was to create a huge amount of role play for quite a large age-range of children,’ comments Lister.

The 324m2 playground follows a nautical theme that offers universal imaginative potential to boys and girls aged between three and 12, says Lister. It contains a small water feature, rubber flooring and fibre optics.

Safety was another primary consideration, he says. Features created for older children had to be designed to ensure that younger children could not use them and injure themselves.

Lister says that Redd is better known for its branding work in the sports and leisure fields. ‘We’re not playground designers,’ he comments, but says the consultancy enjoys the variety of challenging one-off projects.