Who is ?

PlayCore is a purpose-driven company that develops leading research and a complete portfolio of innovative products, programs, and services to build healthy communities through play, recreation, and outdoor spaces.

We Believe that various forms of play, recreation, and physical activity are essential throughout life as they provide a healthy life balance and greatly enrich people of all ages and abilities.



Okay, so what do they want me to do for them?







Inclusive Play

PlayCore wants me to design them a product that is fully inclusive.


“ike, does that mean accessible for folks who may have a disability?”
yup!

“ike, does that mean it has to also include people who are able-bodied?”
100%

“ike, does that mean its for toddlers?”
of course!

“ike, does that mean its for elderly folks?”
absolutely

“but ike, that’s a very broad range of folks. what on earth could possibly connect them all through play?”
i’m glad you asked.





“Music is the universal language of mankind.”

                                                                                                       -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Music is powerful


Listening to music

during early development

helps the mind and body work together


Listening to music helps children develop speech recognition


Learning to play an instrument improves math abilities and can increase SAT scores






...and then it’s time for modelling








This first handcrafted model was made to get a sense of scale for the original idea behind Team Beats. It gave me a gauge for the size I needed to use and helped further my ideation process.










This model was used to explore how to better seperate the players into roles. This helps to better facilitate a cooperative playstyle that encouraged both sociodramatic play and social development.











This model helped solidify the style of Team Beats and also shed light on certain problems that this iteration had in terms of accessibility, and manufacturing.






Final Product

Team Beats is an outdoor play structure that allows for anyone to be able to have a garage rock-’n-roll style jam-sesh with their friends, or someone new!

One player takes on the role of “producer,” while their friends take on the role of “the band.” Both roles power up their respective sides using Fahr Industries’ RotoGen©.  The producer hits record and conducts the band as they jam on their touch-sensitive instrument panels. The producer hits stop, then play, and then they all dance along to their recorded session!

Team Beats has been meticulously designed with manufacturability and modulability in mind. This means it can easily be sold in several configurations and assembled easily on-site.