We love working on playgrounds and nothing makes us happier than being involved in exciting projects that capture kids’ imaginations. In our everyday business, we use lines to convey and instil order, maximise space and ensure safety, but a number of playgrounds are giving a whole new purpose to the painted line – fun.

Here are our top tips for how you can invigorate your playground.

1 – Listen to kids

Ask kids what they want. It sounds so obvious and simple, but too often we see kindergartens, schools and local councils leave children out of the creative process which ends up leading to guess work. Instead, we suggest you include children in the design process. Talk to them. Ask them what they think would be fun. Get inside their heads. Amidst the outlandish ideas will be a few doable ones that will capture their imaginations and provide hours of endless fun.

Real life example – In the Auckland suburb of Waterview, the NZ Transport Agency’s Waterview Connection motorway project set a new benchmark for how playgrounds of the 21^st century should look. Waterview Reserve playground, which opened in December 2015, is a shining example of the potential that exists.

So what is the key to the popularity of the Waterview Reserve playground?

“Our designers listened to what the children had to say,” says NZ Transport Agency’s Highway Manager, Brett Gliddon.

2 – Variety!

How much variety there is across your playground is only limited by imagination. Kids love diverse and varied activities so pack it with a mix of features to create a more adventurous experience.

Real life example – Waterview Reserve playground is a perfect example of how to capture kids’ imaginations.

“There are water-play and risk-taking areas, as well as slides, swings, roundabouts and sports courts. And while we couldn’t give them the ‘edible’ playground they wanted with trees of lollies, plenty of fruit trees have been planted instead,” says Gliddon.

Budget needn’t restrict your ability to do that as a creative and intelligently designed playground can use new age paint work to give your playground the kick it needs to bring it to life.

3 – Colour

By injecting a serious dose of colour, you can breathe new life into a tired playground or put the sparkle and wow factor into a new build.

Using a colourful range of markings can help to create a virtual wonderland for children that will keep them amused for hours. It’s important to use marking products which are UV resistant to ensure you get long-lasting value out of your investment. It’s also important to use environmentally friendly substances with 100% organic ingredients like the DecoMark products we use at Coastline Markers. It goes without saying that it’s never worth taking any risks, especially when children are involved.

Real life example – The array of colours applied at the Waterview Reserve playground and the use of new technology and varied line formations has given the community something that excites and entertains them, and will continue to do so for years to come.

4 – Get in touch with Coastline Markers today…

Our crack team of marking specialists are ready to work with you to create a captivating, adventure-filled and safe playground.

We can help you to make the most of your resources, with budget-friendly options that won’t break the bank.

So get your creative juices flowing and give us a call to learn more about the options available.

Roads are our lifeblood. I’m sure we can all think back to when we were kids, the whole family squeezing into the car and heading out on our nation’s roads to beaches and baches for family days out and holidays every summer. If you’re anything like us, the road markings and sign posts you saw along the way during heated games of ‘I spy’ are etched into your childhood memories.

Keeping New Zealand safe

It may seem mundane or dull to some, but at Coastline Markers this is our life. We understand the role our nation’s roads play in our everyday lives. The condition of our roads is critical to our families’ safety, as well as our nation’s economy. In remote areas like those in our country’s upper North Island, safe and well-marked roads and highways are a vital part of our livelihood.

Minimising disruptions

We are acutely aware of this at Coastline Markers so whenever we carry out a project we make sure to minimise disruptions as best we can. As winter winds and rain lash the North Island, we are currently making the most of whatever dry periods we get to lay the road markings for a 200km stretch of road on State Highway 1 from Ohaeawai to Puhoi in Northland. We’ve been installing audio tactile paving (ATP), also known as rumble strips, along the centrelines and in missing areas of the edgelines.

Wet weather really hampers how much work we can do because we need the roads to be dry and the cold overnight temperatures affect drying times. We never want to adversely affect the public and their journey times so we try to work at night so as to minimise the inconvenience people experience.

A large fleet of the latest, computer-controlled line marking and line removal vehicles and equipment aids this cause while providing the highest possible levels of safety. As we start to get some warmer and drier weather we will be back onto night shifts to get the job completed inside a month.

Reducing crashes

Safety is the core reason for our existence. ATP road markings have been shown in a raft of studies to significantly reduce all types of crashes1. Centreline ATP markings help to reduce head-on and sideswipe crashes1, so we see this project as a much-needed addition to the region.

The project also included the installation of cold applied plastic (CAP) road markings from Dargaville to Ruawai on State Highway 12. A section of road had recently been resurfaced and needed CAP and ATP installed. Despite the prevailing rain, we were able to get enough work done in the gaps of dry weather to complete this additional job inside 5 days. CAP road markings are our bread and butter at Coastline Markers.

We are the leaders in Cold Applied Plastic application and technology in Australasia. Our CAP road markings provide a high and consistent level of retro reflectivity over a long period of time throughout the toughest of conditions. The 3D structured application provides excellent wet night visibility, helping to promote driver safety.

Read more about the safety benefits of ATP road markings…

http://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/resources/audio-tactile-profiled-roadmarkings-guidelines/docs/atp-guidelines.pdf

1 Guidelines for using audio tactile profiled (ATP) roadmarkings (2010). NZ Transport Agency. http://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/resources/audio-tactile-profiled-roadmarkings-guidelines/docs/atp-guidelines.pdf

Businesses around the world spend millions of dollars on initiatives designed to grab their customers’ attention as soon as they step in the door. The experiential marketing industry has exploded in recent years.

The aim is to create a unique and memorable instore experience for your customers that enhances their brand loyalty and keeps them spending money. Stores try to captivate your senses with songs that make you happy, scents that lure you in and enticing visual displays that grab your attention.

What comes before experiential marketing?

The car park. Don’t laugh. It’s an often overlooked, but oh so important part of a successful experiential marketing strategy. How many times have you found yourself irate before you’ve even entered a store because you struggled to find a space? Ensuring your parking facilities are clearly marked helps traffic to flow smoothly and is the first step in giving your customers a good instore experience.

Improve traffic flow

New World supermarket in Whangaparaoa understood how car park line marking affects their customers’ overall experience so they employed our services towards the end of 2015.

They wanted to improve the flow of traffic and clearly demarcate the various types of parking available, such as disabled and parent spaces. We laid extensive road marking paint in both yellow and white paint in order to delimit parking spaces.

Hard wearing Damar Beadlock paint was used and depending on the volume of traffic, this should maintain good visibility for 12-18 months. Beadlock paint has high reflectivity, making it easier for customers to follow road markings and find a parking space. We always use high quality paints. Damar is an industry leader in roadmarking paint development. The use of colour not only makes it easier for customers to see where to park, it is also aesthetically pleasing.

Anti-skid paint

For special bays we used Damar anti-skid paint in red and blue. Anti-skid paint increases grip underfoot to improve both worker and customer safety.

Make your customers’ lives easier

By providing clearly defined and well-spaced parking spaces that cater for different levels of mobility, you give your customers the best possible chance of having a positive interaction with your company and maintain customer loyalty. Arrows that control traffic flow improve driver decision making and understanding, helping to avoid car park congestion.

The undulating track at North Harbour BMX Club on Bush Road in Albany presents its riders with challenging turns and gives birth to some serious hang time.

To maximise rider safety it is imperative to have clear track markings and, in particular, highly visible edgelines. In the heat of battle, with packs of riders soaring through the air and flying around tight corners there is a real need for bright and well-defined lines to guide competitors safely around the track.

Avoid accidents

You don’t want to have pileups at the start line so riders need to be well spaced out in delineated sections with easily identifiable track numbers. The clearer and more visible the track markings are, the safer it is for competitors.

The club recently commissioned our services to lay new track markings at the start gate and along the edgelines. On the surface, painting lines may not seem complex but with there’s a lot more to it than you’d think.

Make the right choice

For BMX clubs, getting the most out of their investment and achieving longevity is a delicately poised balance that requires consideration of the surface, choice of paint and line marking technology. The steep and varying gradients, curved lines and awkward angles make it a challenging task in need of experienced personnel.

To ensure North Harbour BMX Club got the best possible result, we used high-performance, polymer modified, Damar Beadlock road marking paint. It offers great flexibility for specialist applications and is commonly used on motor racing tracks. Highly durable, it will maintain good visibility for up to three years.

Great finish

The response from North Harbour BMX club has been really positive. They are stoked with the high quality finish which has improved the health and safety of their members.

If you need any advice on line markings for BMX tracks or any other kind of sports surfaces, please get in touch with our experienced team at Coastline Markers.

Making the most of whatever space you’ve got is what we’re good at. However limited, there are always ways to utilise the space in a way that maximises its use.

At Warkworth Primary School, we recently put our expertise in this area to good use. Through the strategic use of well-placed lines, we were able to create a sports court that could be used for netball, basketball and tennis.

Maximise your investment

Using the right paint for the right surface is one of the keys to getting extraordinary results that you can be proud to show off. At Warkworth Primary School, we used a special hardcourt paint called Fleet Australasia Hard Court paint to line the asphalt. It’s a specially designed paint for sports courts that maintains a high visibility for 12-18 months.

Using a line laser machine, we were able to create clear, crisp lines in a mix of colours. Straight and arching lines in white, red and yellow clearly delineate sections of the court for each sport. Using different colours helps to distinguish which lines are for which sport, helping to avoid any confusion amongst players in the heat of battle.

The high-quality paint and line laser technology used by our expert team left the courts with a professional finish that will have kids thinking they’re on the same standard of court their favourite athletes play on. Our client was happy and the kids now have a multi-purpose court that can be used at playtime and lunchtime, as well as school sport days.