How have children been involved in developing LEDON Pirates?

Primary school children from Brændkjærskolen in Kolding, Denmark, are some of the children who have been closely involved in developing LEDON’s pirate universe. Through workshops with brainstorming sessions as well as model-building and prototyping, we learned how children aged 7-8 years envisage the world of pirates. For example, it is important that a ship has a captain and a helmsman, but also that there is room for a ship’s cook, because otherwise “the pirates won’t get anything to eat” (says Jonas, aged 7). This is also why our biggest pirate ships have a captain’s cabin with treasure maps, but also a galley featuring a ‘red crab’ in a pot.

 Involving the children in the design process has proved extremely valuable, and their input has frequently resulted in changes being made to the design of the ship and several play activities, for example the anchor chain, wobbly planks, cargo holds and hiding places. Their direct input has been used by LEDON’s product development team to create a playground packed with play value, where children can act out their pirate dreams.