Every standout brand experience starts with one simple thing: an idea. Sometimes it’s wild, sometimes it’s unexpected—but it’s always fueled by creativity. At Bluewater, bringing bold experiential activations to life is what we do best. When our client MKTG approached us to help activate Ally’s sponsorship of the US Open, we knew we had to swing big.
Enter: PuttSkee — a hybrid game combining the familiar fun of mini-golf with the nostalgic flair of skee-ball, designed to draw attention, spark curiosity, and create non-stop engagement. To understand how this activation came to life, we went behind the scenes with Brad Kaminski, Environment Artist at Bluewater.
The Creative Starting Line
At Bluewater, the creative process kicks off without boundaries. In Brad’s words, “We like to have a ‘pie in the sky’ mentality.” During early brainstorms, the team sets aside practical concerns like cost or feasibility and focuses purely on creativity—tossing out bold, wild, even impractical ideas to see what sticks.
This kind of environment encourages big-picture thinking and unexpected connections. It’s how ideas like PuttSkee are born—through open collaboration and imaginative freedom.
A New Kind of Game
PuttSkee started with a specific challenge: create a fun, engaging activation for a limited-footprint booth space at the US Open. It needed to incorporate golf in some way, support digital elements through an LED screen, and keep people moving efficiently through the experience.
While a simple putting game may have been the obvious choice, Brad and the team wanted to go beyond the expected. They looked for something that felt more dynamic and layered. That’s when the idea of combining golf with a skee-ball-style wall came into play.
The result was a game that not only looked great on screen but allowed multiple players to interact at once, making it ideal for high-throughput environments like trade shows and sporting events.
“It allowed for a number of players, as well as having the ability for people to come and go without interrupting another player,” Brad explains.
From Sketch to Structure
With the core concept in place, the team moved into the visual development phase. Initial renders were created to communicate the look, layout, and functionality of the activation. These weren’t just technical drawings—they were graphic-driven visualizations that helped everyone understand how the experience would feel.
From there, the live events team got involved to assess feasibility, suggest improvements, and align the design with real-world constraints.
“We partner with the live events team to get a sense for feasibility and make any major (or minor) changes so that we can make the activation come to life,” Brad says.
Once the design was fully vetted, construction drawings were developed to break down the activation into its component parts. Then, the project moved into production and execution.
The Details That Matter
Great activations aren’t just beautiful—they’re smart, interactive, and intentional. According to Brad, space is one of the most critical considerations when designing an experience like this.
“It is important where they are in a space to grab people’s attention and have the room to make the activation engaging and not cramped or off-putting,” he says.
Without the right footprint, even the most visually compelling ideas can fall flat. For PuttSkee, careful planning ensured the activation fit seamlessly into its environment and encouraged easy participation from passersby.
Seeing the Vision Come to Life
Brad’s role in creating PuttSkee focused on the early stages—brainstorming the concept, crafting renderings, and producing construction drawings. Like many projects, once his part was complete, it moved on to other teams. He didn’t see the activation being built or installed.
That’s why getting to see the final setup in Bluewater’s warehouse was such a rare and rewarding moment.
“A lot of times, you only get to touch a project at certain points,” Brad shared. “To see this idea that came about in a brainstorm—something I worked on during the design phase—actually standing there in front of me, fully built… I was amazed.”
It’s not often that the full vision comes into focus like that.
“It was remarkable to see the entire journey of this project,” he said, “and to know I helped create one of our signature activations.”
More Than a Game
More Than a GamePuttSkee represents what happens when creativity, collaboration, and execution all come together. It’s more than a clever combination of two nostalgic games—it’s an example of how Bluewater turns big ideas into brand moments that stick.
From concepting wild ideas to building something that works in the real world, our experiential design team thrives on challenges like this. Because at the end of the day, we’re not just designing activations—we’re building experiences people remember.
Have an idea you want to bring to life? Whether you’re looking to drive engagement, create buzz, or tell your brand story in a bold new way, our team is ready to help. Let’s create something unforgettable together.
