Playful retail is serious design work.

The question I got asked most about the Coach Corner Shop takeover at Selfridges wasn’t about the design, the engineering or even the build.

It was: “How on earth did you get that slide past health and safety?”

That question makes me smile because only people in the industry would think about it that way. They know the pain. 

The reality is that the spaces which feel the most spontaneous and joyful to the public are often the ones that need the most invisible planning, technical thinking and behavioural design behind the scenes.

Because when you invite adults to climb, slide, touch, interact and play inside a retail environment without supervision, you’re no longer just designing a beautiful space. You’re designing for human behaviour. And in my experience, that’s where things get difficult.

A static installation only has to look good, but a playful one has to work in the real world. People need to understand how to use it instinctively. They need to feel safe enough to participate. The flow needs to make sense. The engineering needs to disappear into the experience.

Most importantly, people need to enjoy themselves without ever thinking about all the things you had to think about for them.

I always think of a great brand experience like a good joke. Everyone has to get it immediately. And that only happens when there are no barriers to entry.

One of the biggest mistakes I see brands make is assuming participation happens automatically, when it doesn’t. In fact, the more interactive something becomes, the more carefully choreographed it actually needs to be.

You have to think about hesitation points, bottlenecks, confidence levels and human behaviour. Will people know where to go? Will they understand what they’re supposed to do? Will they feel awkward participating in front of strangers? Can the space handle the way people actually move through it, rather than how you imagined they would?

That’s before you even get into the technical side.

For a project like the Coach Charm Playground, our teams are working through pages of regulations, loadings, material restrictions and venue requirements from the very start. We’re testing, prototyping and sampling constantly. We produced more than 150 sample sets on this project alone.

And then eventually comes install – the part which 99% of people never see. The overnight shifts, timed deliveries, the problem-solving at 3 am. The reality that these huge public-facing experiences often have to appear almost magically before doors open the next morning.

By the time we get on-site, the process should feel like a Formula One pit stop. Everybody knows exactly where they’re standing, exactly what they’re doing and exactly how long they have to do it.

That level of planning is what allows the final experience to feel playful and effortless.

Ironically, the more fun something looks, the more disciplined the process behind it usually is.

For designers and brands creating immersive retail environments, there are a few lessons I think really matter.

1. The big idea is everything. Know the why, the behaviour you’re trying to unlock, and the feeling you want someone to have when they walk in. That becomes the North Star for every decision that follows.
2. Your job doesn’t end at sign-off. Someone has to protect the idea all the way through production, not just at the brief stage.
3. Get into the workshop. The knowledge is in the hands of the people who make the work. The best designers understand how things are built and use that knowledge to push ideas further, not water them down.
4. Know which battles matter. There are a hundred moments in a project where the path of least resistance is compromise. Great designers recognise those moments and hold the line on what counts.
5. Design for people, not portfolios. Of course the work should look incredible. But the more important question is: what will a real person actually do when they stand in front of this, and how will they feel?
6. Stay in it till the end. The energy you bring on day one needs to be the same energy you bring to the overnight install. The standard doesn’t drop just because the deadline is close.

I think that’s what the industry sometimes misses about this new wave of playful retail. The best playful experiences are built on rigour. And although it’s a slog, the joy at seeing the client’s vision made real makes every hour of it worth it.