@Street Designers – Photo by ©streetdesigners
Karting and escape games have their merits. But by the third or fourth time, the element of surprise erodes and with it, the desire to go back. This isn't a judgement, it's an observation many HR professionals and managers make after a few years of searching for something that could unite their team beyond the annual ritual.
What we’ve observed at Street Designers, after running hundreds of workshops for companies such as McKinsey, Sanofi, Louis Vuitton and Biocoop, is that what leaves a lasting impression is often the unexpected. A firecracker in your hand that you’ve never held before. A mural on a wall you pass every morning. A short film that the team brings up again at meetings six months later.
Here are 10 creative and artistic formats that have proven effective, and why they truly work, beyond mere commercial descriptions.
1. Collaborative street art fresco
This is one of our most requested activities. The principle is simple: an artist develops a sketch based on a client brief, then creates a bespoke mock-up tailored to the client.
At the event, the mural, divided into puzzle pieces, is distributed across the tables.
Depending on the formats, the project can bring together 100 to 500 participants and accommodate up to 1,000 people. It's an ideal activity for large groups.
The artist and the Street Designers team guide all the groups to ensure that the artwork remains visually coherent, even with dozens of people working on it.
At the end of the activity, all the pieces are gathered to recreate the initial coloured image. The participants discover the fresco in its entirety during the countdown and the final reveal with a curtain drop. A wow effect is guaranteed!
The final result is then displayed on the company's premises as a work of art from the project completed together.
Street Designers presents: the Collaborative Mural, on a giant canvas, available at Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux and throughout France.
Recommended format: 60 to 800 participants · 2h · Indoor or outdoor
Team building Collaborative Fresco for Biocoop – @Street Designers – Photo by ©street designers
2. Introduction to graffiti
Almost everyone arrives here saying, «I can't draw.» That's often the first sentence. And that's precisely why it works: graffiti is a discipline in which no one feels legitimate, which puts everyone on an equal footing from the start.
Participants take home their own creation. Not a mass-produced souvenir: something they made themselves, and which proves it.
Undoubtedly one of the most fun activities, with real pleasure in discovering urban art with spray paint.
Street Designers offers the Team Building Graffiti, organised for companies such as McKinsey, Sanofi, Biocoop. For smaller groups, we also offer a Private graffiti workshop in Paris.
Ideal for: 10 to 300 people · 2h to 2h30 · Indoors or outdoors
Team building graffiti @Street Designers – Photo by ©streetdesigners
3. Collective Pop Art Workshop
It is a Street Designers invention that has been hugely successful since 2006.
What's special about Pop Art is that it produces visually strong results without requiring prior skills. The flat areas of bright colours, the thick outlines, the screen-printing aesthetic inspired by the artist Keith Haring: all of this lends itself well to collective work around a table where the whole group exchanges ideas and brainstorms to find the visual mechanics that will bring these paintings to life.
We've used it several times for kick-offs and project launches, onboarding new employees, or to address HR issues. Because the format naturally creates discussion. Everyone contributes their ideas, which then come together in a joint achievement. It's a good metaphor for what you're trying to do in your organisation, and the teams feel it without us needing to explain it.
Street Designers offers the Pop Art Artistic Team Building, also organisable at Lille, Nantes You Strasbourg.
Ideal for: 10 to 300 people · 2h · Indoor or outdoor
Team building Pop Art @Street Designers – Photo by ©streetdesigners
4. Green graffiti team building
The principle replaces the spray can with living plant-based foam, with a focus on values and CSR. Teams create murals and typography on wooden supports, without chemicals, using natural glue prepared in advance by our team. The result is often visually surprising; no one anticipates what it will look like, and the mural can then be permanently installed in your premises.
This format is particularly relevant for companies looking to anchor their CSR commitments in something tangible, rather than a PowerPoint presentation. We also work on projects related to CSR, company culture, or internal transformation. The workshop worked where speeches had failed, because it gave people something to do together rather than something to listen to.
Street Designers offers the Team Building Living Wall, organised anywhere in France, at your premises or at an event venue.
Ideal for: 10 to 300 people · 2 hours · Indoor or outdoor · Strong CSR commitment
Green wall team building – @Street Designers – Photo by ©streetdesigners
5. Participative live painting
An artist creates a piece live during your event. The mural is designed beforehand based on the client's brief to create a work that is consistent with the brand's image, values, and universe.
The participants aren't just passively watching: they engage with it, add their own touch, and customise it to their liking. The hybrid format, somewhere between a performance and a workshop, creates something that a conference or a gala dinner cannot produce: a natural point of convergence, around which conversations spark and flow spontaneously.
Participants can interact directly with the artist throughout the workshop. Each mural is led by a recognised street art and graffiti artist, who shares their practice and guides the group in the creation of the artwork.
This type of activity sparks engagement. Watching someone create live creates shared attention, and shared attention builds connection.
Street Designers offers the Live Participative Painting, associated with a Live Artist Show for more ambitious events.
Between 1 and 4 hours · 100 % (customisable) · Indoor or outdoor
Live Participatory Painting @Street Designers – Photo by ©streetdesigners
6. Recycled Art Fresco
Instead of painting, the teams assemble a collaborative mural from recycled materials: cardboard, bottle caps, fabrics, leather, etc.
The materials used are sourced from haute couture houses, partner associations, and donations. This diversity of sources allows us to work with a variety of high-quality materials, sometimes made from noble fabrics.
What always strikes participants is what can be achieved with constraints. Creativity under constraint is more stimulating than a blank page, and this is true in workshops as well as in real life.
The principle is to illustrate the company’s values or key themes related to the business by developing a meaningful CSR fresco.
And the final work, exhibited within the company, systematically prompts the question: «What is it made with?», which opens a conversation about the process rather than the result.
Street Designers offers the Team Building Recycl'Art, associated with Team Building Furniture DIY for a day entirely dedicated to the circular economy.
Ideal for: 10 to 300 people · 2h · Strong CSR focus
Team Building Recycling @Street Designers – Photo by ©streetdesigners
7. Theatrical improvisation workshop
Improvisation is not a disguised drama class. What it actually trains is: listening before responding, accepting the other person's proposal rather than countering it, and building on what exists rather than starting from scratch. These are exactly the same skills that are missing in many meetings.
The format always surprises teams who approach it with suspicion. The progressive, short, concrete exercises, with no text to memorise, quickly disarm resistance. What happens next is less like theatre and more like a very lively conversation. The benefits are lasting: several managers have reported observing changes in the way their teams conducted their meetings in the weeks that followed.
Ideal for: 8 to 40 people · 2h to 3h · Indoor · Direct impact on communication
8. One-day idea hackathon
The hackathon has been very overused. The most effective format we've seen isn't asking people to innovate in the abstract, but rather presenting them with a real, concrete problem they recognise as such. Mixed teams, with a blend of business functions and hierarchical levels, work better when the subject directly concerns them.
What makes the format valuable is its dual nature: it brings together people who don't usually work together, and it produces results that can actually be implemented. The best ideas are pitched to an internal jury at the end of the day. When the organisation truly takes an idea seriously after the hackathon, the effect on team engagement is proportional.
Ideal for: 20 to 200 people · Full day · Anchoring innovation and strategy
9. Bespoke urban treasure hunt
The difference between a generic treasure hunt and a bespoke treasure hunt is what it tells you. A generic game transports teams from point A to point B with interchangeable riddles. A bespoke game can incorporate the story of your company, anecdotes that nobody knows, the geography of a city that has been significant to your organisation.
The format is well-suited for geographically dispersed teams that meet occasionally. Participants navigate using their smartphones, solve contextual puzzles, and then come together for a debrief with shared experiences to talk about. This is not insignificant: many team-building events fail because they don't create shared stories to recount afterwards.
It's even possible to go on a treasure hunt using the Géocaching or Flash Invaders apps.
Ideal for: all sizes · 2h to 4h · Outdoor · Fully customisable
Street Art Tour and graffiti workshop in Paris
10. Filming a corporate mini-film
This format consistently reveals things that managers didn't know about their teams. Someone who never speaks up in meetings might prove to be excellent at execution. Someone else who no one expected anything from in a creative context might write the funniest script of the day.
Teams write, act in and direct a short film with the help of a professional, be it fiction, documentary or parody. The collective screening at the end of the day is always a highlight because everyone appears in it, and seeing your colleagues in an unusual role changes how you perceive them at the office. The film also becomes reusable internal content that teams bring out long after.
Ideal for: 10 to 50 people · Full day · Creativity and storytelling
How to choose between these formats?
The first question to ask is not «what's trending?» but «where is my team right now?». A team under pressure needs something to de-stress before building. A team that is performing well and wants to go further can afford a more demanding format like a hackathon or a workshop.
A principle we always apply: hands-on activities work better than formats with a lot of talking for teams where people don't really know each other yet, or for those where hierarchy is a factor. Holding a paintbrush or a spray can puts everyone on a level playing field.
If you're looking for a ready-to-use artistic format, professionally supervised and adaptable to your context, Explore all our services You contact us directly ; We respond in under 3 hours on weekdays.
One Object customisation project or artistic collaboration? 
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Article written by Ludovic, specialising in Wall murals, the artistic animations and the Creative team building for businesses, shops and local authorities.
