Your Carpark Is Now Playable—And That’s Brilliant Design
It happened at a university in Ōtautahi. A designer took a stretch of cracked, unloved pavement behind the architecture building and turned it into an immersive, playable mural. It wasn’t a mural in the Instagram trap kind of way. No wings or neon catchphrases. It was a hopskotch-meets-snakes-and-ladders fever dream painted straight onto the concrete—and students actually used it. They played on it. Adults. In public.
This is the kind of work I want to see more of: design that makes spaces behave differently. It's not interested in being beautiful. It wants behaviour. Function. Surprise. You could argue this isn’t advertising at all, but it’s the same craft. The mural changed how people moved through a space. It made them notice. That’s good storytelling before you’ve even added a logo.
There’s a recurring idea in advertising where designers are told to attack from the side. Don’t take the front door, come in through the garden shed. This wildly interactive mural is one of those side-door moments, except in physical form. No apps. No QR codes. Just a bit of pavement and some outside-the-box paintwork. You don’t need big budgets, just a clear intent and (very) patient brushwork.
Of course, the moment someone in a creative pitch room shouts “gamify the concrete,” I’ll have regrets about writing this. But for now, let me enjoy the joy of seeing people step outside and play again. Not for content, not for virality, just because the ground invited them. That’s what great design can do when it puts behaviour ahead of brand.
This is the kind of work I want to see more of: design that makes spaces behave differently. It's not interested in being beautiful. It wants behaviour. Function. Surprise. You could argue this isn’t advertising at all, but it’s the same craft. The mural changed how people moved through a space. It made them notice. That’s good storytelling before you’ve even added a logo.
There’s a recurring idea in advertising where designers are told to attack from the side. Don’t take the front door, come in through the garden shed. This wildly interactive mural is one of those side-door moments, except in physical form. No apps. No QR codes. Just a bit of pavement and some outside-the-box paintwork. You don’t need big budgets, just a clear intent and (very) patient brushwork.
Of course, the moment someone in a creative pitch room shouts “gamify the concrete,” I’ll have regrets about writing this. But for now, let me enjoy the joy of seeing people step outside and play again. Not for content, not for virality, just because the ground invited them. That’s what great design can do when it puts behaviour ahead of brand.