One of the things that sets our design team apart is the depth of thinking behind every decision. Scott has spent years exploring how color influences the way play spaces are experienced. As he shares here, color is never just about what looks good on paper. Color responds to the landscape, the architecture, the light and the community surrounding it. It's this kind of intentional design thinking that helps us create play environments that feel like they truly belong. Because great design doesn't compete with a place, it complements it. #playlsi
Nothing we design and build lands on a blank site. Every playground drops into a place that already has color, and that place rarely holds still. A prairie runs green in June and gold by October. A downtown throws back glass and hard light all day long. Whatever color we bring has to answer to what's already there, and "there" is different every time. And it's not only the setting. It's how our colors sit next to each other once they're in it. A tone that sings against concrete can go muddy in tall grass. Two colors that feel balanced on a chip can fight once the light and the surroundings get involved. Context is the environment and the relationships inside it, at the same time. So there's no single right move. Look at these four. In the prairie, the color tucks into the grasses and blooms until it reads like part of the planting. Downtown, it turns bold against the glass and concrete, because anything quieter would vanish. Out in the open, it catches the afternoon sun and makes the light part of the structure. In the woods, it drops low and earthy, so the play belongs to the trees. Same thinking every time. The site decides the answer. We started making our own playground colors about a decade ago, and that's what gives us the range to do this. We can move a color's tone, saturation, texture, and finish until it sits right in its specific place, instead of asking the site to accept whatever came in the box. When it works, nobody really notices the color. The playground just feels like it belongs there. I'd love to hear from anyone who works in color. When you place one, how much of your decision is the color itself versus everything around it, the setting, the light, and the colors already sitting next to it?
