I just couldn't resist this one - pure genius!
Imagine the time, talent and skill it took to create this. I'm humbled! My hat off to LEGO fans world wide!!
And to all those who would like the real factory making a LEGO car of their very own, don't forget LEGO Factory.
Back in the day when I went to design school, the greatest aspiration uniting all my fellow students was to become the next Philippe Starck. The idea of the lone genius, the one people always called upon to create beauty and join form with function, the duck that consistently always laid golden eggs for his clients - this was, and in some circles still is, the ideal for designers.
Creativity and why designers are not artists
What's the difference you may ask. A good question to ask as both rely
heavily on their creative skill to create solutions. According to
Arthur Koestler, the most-cited authority on creativity, every creative act involves bisociation,
a process that brings together and combines previously unrelated ideas.
He contrasts bisociation with association, saying that association
refers to previously established connections among ideas but that
isociation involves making entirely new connections among ideas.
Koestler’s definition addresses all forms of creativity, whether in
art, science or humor.
So designers, artists, scientists, you name it all rely on creativity for coming up with solutions, but the difference between designers and artists is ego. Designers (at least good ones anyway) divorce their egos from a project early on to immerse themselves in research, ethnographic studies, insights of various sorts to come up with solutions that best serve the needs identified by users. Artists on the other hand delve in much greater luxury, not necessarily materially speaking, but in terms of accountability. Their works of art are born out personal briefs, passions and ideas - not a common need or problem and are specifically bought, because of their personal interpretation of the reality we all live in. It is their synthesis of subjects in to visual, interactive or 3 dimensional form that evokes an emotional and intellectual reaction in an audience. You can argue here that the above is similarly the reason why we buy certain products, because the name of the designer has become synonymous with compelling design that we appreciate. That is entirely correct, in some areas the roles are particularly blurred as is the case with fashion design for instance, where the designers behave more like artists (some more than others), but who are still commonly referred to as designers.
The Advent of Collective Creativity
Fast-forward to 2007 and our CEO at LEGO, Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, speaking about collective creativity and its power to create stunning products and solutions; 'Why have 100 designers, when you can have a 100.000?', he poignantly asks. And I think: absolutely! Why not indeed - whereas I can in my mind's eye hear all those designers gasp quietly in the background, this is the sound of their dreams vanishing before them.
What does he mean? Knudstorp is referring to the power of collective creativity. Collective creativity occurs when bisociation is shared by two or more people. We are beginning to see that collective creativity can be very powerful and can lead to more culturally relevant results than individual creativity does. This is what happens with really good collaboration based on teamwork.
Liz Sanders from SonicRim articulates this very well her article on the subject. All people who touch and are touched by the “product” that is being designed should play a role in collective creativity. (By “product” I mean products, interfaces, spaces, etc.) These people fall into two main groups: “makers” and “users.” “Makers” include all the members of development teams from disciplines such as marketing, engineering and design. “Users” include people who shop for, buy and end up using the product.
Collective creativity is already being practiced in industry today by “makers.” In fact, most design firms sell their interdisciplinary product development experience. The biggest opportunity for improving the quality of products that we design today is to practice collective creativity with "users." Others agree. Design critic Rick Poynor has argued that "since design is something fundamental to being human, it can’t be left solely in the hands of designated practitioners."
Architect Christopher Alexander writes “People need and have a right to determine and shape their own environment. . . . They are the only ones who know in a profound way what they need . . . .Good architecture can only come from wholehearted involvement of the users in the shaping of their buildings and streets.”
Why is collective creativity important?
To quote Liz Sanders here: Collective creativity, when practiced with "users" in
the design development process, can result in useful and relevant
innovation. This is important because useful and relevant innovation
can be commercially successful at the same time as it is culturally
beneficial. The shift from individual to collective levels in thinking and doing is occurring today in many domains. We see this shift taking place especially today in the world of
business. Design education needs to keep up with the shift to meet the
challenges created by new levels of thought and action.
The changing role of the designer
The days of the super-star designer are numbered. The skills needed to facilitate collective creativity are very different from what the lone genius does in his corner. First there is humility and the profound appreciation of the role ordinary people should have in shaping and creating the project of their dreams. It is no longer the designer who tells the world what the solution should look like, it is the designer who uses his/her expertise in unlocking creativity to enable others, who perhaps habitually are less confident in the creative realm, to unlock their thoughts, ideas and creativity.
At LEGO work continues to expand the ability of ordinary people to create the product of their dreams. An approach pioneered by the Mindstorms NXT development process of involving the Mindstorms community in designing the hardware, software, the toy and pieces for the new robot, has rapidly continued into completely user-designed products sold through the company's LEGO Factory channel, where users can indeed create their very own LEGO model and buy exactly that model as well as be inspired by and buy the creations of others. This of course in parallel with existing product development of LEGO toys, still handled by designers themselves - but even here community interaction is becoming more and more commonplace as the insight and ideas coming from LEGO users are simply too valuable to ignore. Long gone are the days of the lone genius - instead here we are at the advent of collective creativity where the power of many creates far better products and experiences than any one of us could have dreamt up on our own.
Last Friday the global workforce at the LEGO Group all stopped whatever they were doing and joined in to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the company that has brought play and creativity into the hands of millions world-wide.
It was a time of reflection for all of us as well as a great celebration and I was particularly pleased to be joined by several prominent members of the Brickish Association here at our party in the UK, where the weather for once was all blue skies and baking hot - a freak incident amidst solid months of torrential downpours. Talking to these fans one truly is reminded of the fact that despite many people seeing LEGO as a toy, it really is a creative material and the only limit to what can be created is your own imagination. These are individuals, many with serious high-powered jobs - whose sheer brainpower is at the heart of their day-to-day working life as well as it is at the heart of their LEGO hobby. So is LEGO the thinking person's creative material of choice? I'd like to think so for sure.
The motto for the LEGO Group has always been 'Only the best is good enough' and that has kept us on steep path of continuous self-improvement in terms of product innovation, quality as well as play value - but it is also an ethic, which I see disappearing more and more from society around me. Not just from so many companies, intent on making a quick buck by cashing in on consumer's inability to tell the difference between one product and the other, their lack of information or even society at large, where image and spin is what wins elections as this article details, not rolling up your sleeves and getting things done. It is a curious world where as we have lost the safety of jobs-for-life in companies passed down from father to son, we are increasingly also losing the accountability that comes with that. We as employees are quite happy to stand by and witness shambolic behaviour by our colleagues and employers, comfortable in our knowledge that in a year or two, we will have moved on and our decisions and theirs, however unethical, will not stick to us, our reputation as individuals will not be tarnished. Shareholders, more intent on dividends, don't care about the means that earned the profit, as long as it's there and companies are getting so desperate about paying dividends we are seeing them taking out loans from banks for no other reason than to hand the money to their shareholders.
As LEGO still remains a family-owned company, we still adhere to the same principle of 'Only the best is good enough', originally articulated by the founder of the company, because whether we like it or not - longterm that is exactly what it comes down to. The Kristiansen family have a name, a reputation, a history and a responsibility to children all over the world as they see it, and all of us who work for LEGO feel the same. We like to stand for something good in the world, and that only comes from taking a long-term view and carrying the responsibility for your actions and behaviour rather than copping out for short-term profit.
Recently we at LEGO had our most visible example yet of a phenomenon increasingly affecting companies world-wide: the rise of the consumer activist. Above and Beyond: LEGO Shop gives consumers new hope. In our case we are lucky as this commentary turned out in our favour and helped highlight some of the practises we have prided ourselves in offering ever since we set up our consumer service centres, but more often than not consumers bite back and give not only companies a piece of their mind, but also their fellow consumers.
We are truly moving away from the days when it was possible to limit the damage of a single consumer disappointment to travel only as far as that individual could reach through letter, phone and discussion with friends and family. Still damaging to a brand, granted, but today, we are faced with a new situation, a new world order if you like where single consumer contacts and their outcome, positive or negative - have the power to influence thousands, if not millions as they can now be recorded (not only in words, but through camera phones, video, voice) in addition to traditional text - making the content much more evocative and that content be shared with millions, through a plethora of rating and social networking sites.
The only fly in the ointment right now is the absence of profiles - i.e having a service/product/experience rated by someone just like me (age, education, income, job, interests, lifestyle etc.), which would lend the ratings even more gravitas, but it is just a matter of time before a networking site like Myspace teams up with a rating service and makes this happen.
Enter the era of transparency tyranny. This movement is picking up, as people are moving from trusting companies to trusting their peers instead. Furthermore the Digital Natives (those who have grown up with the Internet always there) communicate 155% more than before (Forrester), which means this phenomenon will only grow.
So in my opinion there is nothing that warrants a higher priority in companies than focusing on delivering first-class services and experiences to consumers, measuring it through the Net Promoter Score (NPS). The NPS has to be consistently good across all touchpoints, because this - more than anything, will determine the future of your company. In our case - by the power of our strong heritage, we have a lot of expectations to live up to - people who have grown up with the brand and have come to expect a kind of quality, continuity and ethic to LEGO, which the other toymanufacturers struggle to achieve. All eyes are on us to continue to deliver that in the age of transparency tyranny!
Some of you will have already heard the latest and most exciting news by the famous maker of coloured bricks: announced at the Game Developer Conference this year The LEGO Group and NetDevil have joined forces to bring the extra-ordinary and much-loved universe of LEGO to all as a Massively Multiplayer On-line Game (MMOG).
A vast effort is currently taking place to design and program the foundations for the largest, open-ended universe of endless possibilities ever to grace our screens - a universe as deep and creatively challenging as an ocean full of LEGO bricks! Something I always dreamed of as a child: an endless supply of LEGO bricks - perhaps physically a challenge to house, but no longer an impossibility when going on-line. It will be a wonderful place for experimenting, meeting your friends and joining in to play, and true to the LEGO values, if you can imagine it: you will be able to build it!
If you are interested in joining this effort to build and test this universe when we go into Beta, follow this link and sign-up with your e-mail address!
Further to my recent posts on LEGO and our highly inspirational CEO, Jorgen Vig Knudstorp - here's a chance to see the man in action in an interview by Tyler Brule, the editor-in-chief of recently launched Monocle magazine, aimed at business leaders world-wide. Jorgen talks about the turnaround of LEGO, about our open-source approach to business, about creativity, and even the future of Europe - highly enjoyable and interesting, so go have a peek!
Dear all - it is that time of the year when the Holidays are finally upon us and all excuses involving drinking, eating and enjoying one self in moderation have melted away, along with all those mince pies we know are bad for us.. I would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and thank you for staying tuned to the random content on this blog. It's been a long, up-and-down year for me to say the least, but I've enjoyed every minute of it. As the New Year beckons, I shall bore you with some musings on the year gone by and offer some analysis of what it all means (if anything!). In the meantime
enjoy some hilarious tales of the birth of Christ and the life of Jesus at the one and only Bricktestament
Ever wondered just how much havoc you could cause by rigging up a robot in a shopping mall with a shouting challenge? This brilliant 'you've been framed' is simply hilarious.
Or how about trying to guard a bowl of sweets in a Supermarket - harder than selling ice cream to eskimos? Another hilarious candid camera feast with some finger-licking fun :)
Last week the CEO of the LEGO Group, Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, was elected Danish Manager of the Year 2006 by Ledernes Hovedorganisation, a Danish management organisation. The prize is awarded to a corporate leader whose performance has been outstanding during the past year. Albeit fairly unheard of outside the toy industry, Knudstorp has caught the attention of both employees and LEGO fans alike in addition to competitors by pulling off the phenomenal turnaround of the much-loved toy company from the doldrums it faced particularly in 2003.
Someone asked me recently why I thought that LEGO had hurtled into trouble in the first place and also what it is about Knudstorp that has enabled such a phenomenal change to take place and in effect save the company from being sold off altogether. For me there are many reasons for both - but one stark contrast exists today in comparison to those dark days at the turn of the century: the attitude and style of top management at LEGO. Let me explain:
I joined the company in 2001 and at this time the damage was already being done and perpetrated by an individual at the top of the company who had very little understanding for what LEGO stood for and a vicious management style, which seemed driven by politics, personal vendettas and basically a principle which seemed to suggest: if I don't like the look of you and what you are doing and particularly if you challenge me: you are out! You can of course argue on the merits of such a style, but what it achieved more than anything was spreading fear across the company - into every level, nook and cranny. This fear is was a kind of stifling fog, which meant everyone suddenly stopped speaking their minds for fear of retribution. This meant that suddenly the crucial information was no longer getting up to the top, the dashboard of dials top management were looking at went blank. Reckless driving is what ensued.
By contrast, when Knudstorp took over as CEO in 2004, things began changing dramatically. His humble style and openness, coupled with a desire to communicate face-to-face and via his blog with all layers of the company, began working miracles in gradually dissolving the fog of fear that made it so difficult for top management to see the status of the company, hear whether the engine was creaking or indeed pull up to the petrol station and fill the tank. In my mind, Knudstorp's management style closely resembles the principles of airman-ship that all pilots are taught: Aviate, Navigate and Communicate. These principles need to all be handled simultaneously and you cannot focus on one at the expense of the others, or you risk crashing the plane, yet in business circles many leaders adopt as their hobby horse one of these principles and neglect the rest. This means organisations limp along, struggle for survival and are gradually abandoned by disillusioned employees who can see the wall coming up sooner than top management. Let's elaborate:
1) Aviate
Let's face it, whether you are flying a plane or running a company - it's tricky stuff. You need to be able to fly the plane in an orderly fashion, keeping tabs at all the information your dials and indicators are telling you, resist sudden movements and above all: keep the plane in the air. Running companies is often similar - business climate can suddenly change, there is a lot of information to keep track of and in financial terms you have to keep the company solvent in terms of working capital and cash flow. Equally, you need to make sure the dials are indeed registering all the information on key financial measures, because without them: flying is nigh on impossible.
2) Navigate
Just keeping the plane in the air is not enough, you need to know your direction and altitude. You have to actively and continuously navigate to work out where you are going and if you are lost, you need to work out what to do to get back on track. Timing is also important: you can't afford to run out of fuel. For the financial controller, this means having a 'navigate' dashboard with the appropriate financial measures that enable the organisation to check that it is implementing its planned strategy - the equivalent of making a safe landing.
3) Communicate
Even if you are flying in an orderly fashion and succeeding with navigating as well, you need to keep both crew, passengers and the watchtower informed what is happening in order to make it to your destination. You need to keep your passengers calm and up-to-date as well as set their expectations, the crew have a set of tasks to perform, which are dependent on what the airline offers in terms of service, but also influenced by timing and flying conditions so they need to anticipate your actions in order to be able to orchestrate their own activities accordingly and lastly, the watchtower needs to know what you are up to so as to be able to give you the benefit of their experience in keeping everyone else from crashing into you.
In the same way, business leaders and financial controllers need reliable lines of communication, so that the organisation has complete situational awareness and what is planned corresponds with what is done and what is measured. Therefore you, as a pilot (CEO) need to be able to do all three things concurrently to be able to keep your company functioning and flying safely, with everyone on-board and on the ground comfortable with what is happening. Knudstorp makes this seem effortless in a way that begs the question: surely this should be a more widespread practise across the board? Moreover, how come it is so easy for rogue pilots (CEOs) to take over and try to fly some crazy stunts and get away with it, leaving companies when the damage is done only to join another one and wreak havoc all over again?
Earlier this month I attended LEGOWorld 2006 in Zwolle (19th - 24th October 2006), the Netherlands - the biggest annual LEGO event in the world, pulling together fans from all over Europe and visited by over 50 000 people over 6 days. It is an amazing feat of organisation, orchestrating many different groups and companies to deliver wonderful activities and experiences to all those who come. No, it is not just amazing models on display, but also tons of bricks for you to immerse yourself in and build whatever comes to mind, a true celebration of imagination where only the sky is the limit! Here's a short movie giving you a taste of the event:
LEGO is not just for kids - it's a creative medium capturing the imagination of people regardless of age and background and a means of showcasing some true talent and ingenuity - just check out these MOCs (my own creations) from Brickfest 2006, a recent gathering of LEGO enthusiasts in Vienna, Virginia, USA.
What made this event so memorable for me was how warmly and kindly we LEGO people were greeted by all and how everyone was so open and willing to share thoughts, ideas, experiences, suggestions for improvement etc. This was enormously inspiring and has injected all of us with bags of enthusiasm and passion to do more to support the amazing talent, creativity, skill and ingenuity that frankly had me humbled.
As some of you already know, the cool LEGO Mindstorms robotics invention system has received a much-needed face lift and a whole host of new and improved features. The new Mindstorms is actually a product of co-creation by some of our most avid fans and the LEGO group and is due to launch world-wide in August.
Having seen the many iterations the team have gone through to arrive at this perfect blend of open-ended building and also a revolutionary open-source programming language to encourage users to share their own creations and programs - Mindstorms is continuing as a trail-blazer in the field of robotics. It is one thing to be able to buy a robotic toy that walks, talks, reacts to sound and can pick things up - it's an entirely different matter to be able to decide for yourself what your robot looks like, what it does and how it reacts to stimuli in the environment. Check out this article in Wired Magazine on the new Mindstorms: Geeks in Toyland
More importantly - to get in the mood for the new Mindstorms launch, open the JPG below to see the instructions of how to find the secret Mindstorms movie hidden on LEGO.com!
Kids have a wonderful asset: to them the world is new, it's a place that demands discovery, trying things out, working things out. It's OK to fail, because everyone's in the same boat - we've all had to fall over before we learnt to ride a bicycle, have arguments with our friends to work out how to best get what we want, that dogs can be friendly but also scary, that there are two types of adults: those who get embarrassed when we wanted to play with them and those who see it as a great excuse to abandon the stuffy dinner table and come join us with our toys.
What kids are excellent at is making meaning: the world is a confusing place and the best thing to do is to approach it with reckless abandon and try your best to make sense of it. Toys are extensions of this desire, and building with construction toys is an effort to organise ideas. To me, the essence of LEGO is enacting ideas through construction, the more we build the more ideas we have. It is a wonderful way to get comfortable with creative thinking, how to play around with concepts without losing track of your trail of thought. A recent article by Time Magazine on Google, explains how Sergei Brin and Larry Page frequently play with LEGO to help brainstorm new products and concepts for this brilliantly successful search engine.
The recently launched LEGO Builders of Tomorrow site showcases a range of different initiatives where LEGO is used to foster creativity and help children learn, very inspirational stuff. What is sad is that the older we get, the further removed we get from this child-like approach to life and learning. We convince ourselves that there things we simply 'can't do' - that we are too old for, or can't be seen to be doing because it is childish etc. etc. We relegate ourselves into a prison of our own making and our mindsets change from being open and welcoming to the world, into being suspicious and scared of change. This is a sad fact of growing up, hence my determination to grow old but never to fully grow up.
Why? Because creativity demands curiosity. The enemy of creativity is fear. The best way to blot out fear is through curiosity, so rather than think of consequences we have to be willing to tear things down so we can build them up again - this is called 'creative destruction' if you want to be all grown up about it. There are no rules, so never tell your children what they should do, or do it for them. Let them learn and explore to do what they imagine. This goes for adults too, we get very stroppy when we talked to as if we couldn't think for ourselves. It's about allowing youself to be a dreamer. Someone who thought of how things could be. That is the quest of making meaning. And meaning is why we want to get up in the morning.
In keeping with the Manga/Anime theme I have managed to get my mitts on the full 5 minute LEGO Exoforce movie, showcasing the characters, their robots, the full back story and of course a sneak peek at the coolest LEGO toys you can buy! The movie blends intricate 3D modelling with a manga-art style, creating a hand-drawn look, seamlessly integrating both the LEGO models as well as the 2D heroes. My suspicion is that much of the models are made in Maya, rendered with a special plug-in to make them vector-art and thus blending the hand-drawn with the 3D in a very strong, visually appealing manner. Have a look for yourself and of course: visit LEGO Exoforce for the latest, up-to-date information.
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