The Brick Connection – A novice Lego fan explores the great brick world of LEGO

Hello my fellow LEGO brethren and sistren!

I hope some of you took my advice to get outside and play with your LEGO. Or at the very least I hope you got outside in general.

Last week’s look at the LEGO house got a lot of attention. No attention that involved leaving a comment on the blog. (Because god forbid you do that!) But there was a lot of interest on our Facebook and Twitter pages for the LEGO house, so that was pretty nice.

Speaking of the house, even while watching it unfold on camera, it was hard to imagine trying to build something of that magnitude out of LEGO. It was a logistical nightmare! And almost all of that amazing and painstakingly detailed work was done by volunteers. They weren’t even getting paid!

But what if you did get paid to build with LEGO? It may sound too good to be true, but there are many lucky individuals that do exactly that. And they have a pretty cool office. 

The main entrance to the LEGO factory in Billund, Denmark.  Laerke Posselt for the Wall Street Journal

The amazing sets that you love to build have to come from somewhere and they come from the minds of the LEGO designers.

Being a LEGO designer probably sounds like the dream job for any big LEGO fan. But only the best of the best are able to obtain the illustrious job title. Those that want to make the dream come true have to have the right skill and imagination for the job and make it through a “brutal” recruiting process.

In November 2013 the Wall Street Journal published an article called “Winning a Job at LEGO” about the process; a two-day recruit workshop LEGO has once a year where they invite aspiring designers to LEGO headquarters in Billund, Denmark to compete for a job.

The workshop is quite intense and requires calm while under pressure. But of course, this is only for the applicants that can make it to this point. Twenty-one people with various backgrounds and from around the globe were invited to the 2013 workshop. One can only imagine how many people apply to the job in total. According to the article, “legitimate candidates are identified via Skype conversations and tests.”

Most applicants have some sort of design background, whether they’re straight out of college or have had a couple decades of work experience under their belts. Applicants in this particular bunch included a furniture designer, a film set designer, and an industrial designer.

The most impressive candidates are invited to the workshop and are put through a series of design tasks. The challenges begin before they even get there when they are sent a bag of LEGO pieces and told to show up in Billund “with a creation that represents a direction that Lego should go.” The first thing they do at the workshop is present their idea to the recruiters and fellow recruits.

In another exercise, the applicants featured in the article were asked to create a set that combined medieval and space-themed LEGO sets. They were given bags of LEGO bricks and minifigs to do so. Some sketched their ideas out first, while others just started putting bricks together. They had two and a half hours to complete the task.

Designers sketch new minifigures incorporating traits from their own personalities. Johannes Ledel for the Wall Street Journal

Talk about pressure! And the whole time they are observed by senior LEGO designers, who are taking notes.

And it’s not just the concept of the set that the recruiters are looking at. The color scheme and buildability are very important as is the element of fun. LEGO Design Director Will Thorogood says, "you need to think in a way that adds a little bit of humor to a product or a character or a story, and that's very important for us."

LEGO doesn’t actually plan to build any of the sets that are created at the workshop because the new employees will have to be trained on how to create a set that is properly priced, targets the right age group, and “fits in the LEGO portfolio.” New hires usually work alongside an established LEGO designer for a year before getting assigned to create a small set. Everyone has to start somewhere!

Whoever is hired will have to relocate to Billund, Denmark, which is halfway across the globe for some candidates. At the workshop the current LEGO employees give the potential ones an idea of what to expect if they move to Billund. The small town of 6,500 has very little night life and residents are subjected to Denmark’s high tax system. But the candidates are assured that should they be hired, their wages will be good enough to make up for this inconvenience. (What about assurance for a more wild night life?)

Eight of the 21 candidates at this particular workshop ended up being hired by LEGO.

So that’s a taste of LEGO’s thorough and intense hiring process. I recommend reading the WSJ article and watching the short video where LEGO employees and some of their potential hires talk about the workshop. You can find both here.

Do you think you could make it through that workshop? I mean, I know I couldn't. But maybe some of you hardcore LEGO fans think you might have what it takes.I think as cool as it sounds, some fans would struggle to limit their imagination to the guidelines of TLG if they were lucky enough to be hired.

Speaking of fans that become employees...

After learning about the recruiting process, I wanted to know about what it’s actually like to have this crazy cool and prestigious profession so I did some research

I found an interview with an actual LEGO designer done by one of the best LEGO blogs out there, The Brothers Brick. This interview was from January 2009 with Mark Stafford. Not only has Mark worked for TLG since 2006, but he has been active in the AFOL online community since 1999. He goes by the name Nabii online. Originally from the UK, Mark worked as a Marine Cargo Surveyor in the Netherlands before he snagged his dream job with LEGO. It was actually his girlfriend who saw the job listing online. And just like in the article, Mark was invited to a two-day workshop in Billund with 26 other potential recruits, before being hired along with seven other people.

Mark has made quite the name for himself in the LEGO community. I know this because he has his own Brickipedia page. From this I found out that Mark is mostly known for his work with the Exo-Force and Ninjago themes.

In the interview with The Brothers Brick, Mark talked about the difficulties of simplifying his creations to fit TLG’s target audience of kids:

“They have a different tolerance for frustration, amount of time it takes to find elements in the pile, lower manual dexterity and much reduced strength in their fingers in comparison to adult builders.

They also like shooting functions much more!”

As an AFOL he can do whatever he wants with his MOCs. But as a LEGO designer, any interesting combinations of parts have to be clearly explained in building instructions.

Personally, I know a lot of older MOC builders like to employ the SNOT technique. Creations made out of LEGO look cooler, when you almost can’t tell it’s LEGO. Mark is a big fan of SNOT as well.

But when Mark is building for his job he has to avoid his desire to “SNOT it up.” (I just coined that phrase.) As he puts it, “the LEGO Company is proud of its studs, and a model without any at all is actually frowned upon.”

You should definitely check out the full interview. Here is Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

The interview may be over 7 years old, but it’s still very interesting and relevant. I made sure to check if Mark Stafford still works at LEGO and he does. In fact, to get an insider’s perspective on what’s new with LEGO you should follow him on Twitter (@LEGO_Nabii). Apparently @BrickWarriors already does.

LEGO designer is just one job where people get paid to create things with LEGO. There are also master model builders, LEGO certified professionals, and some other very unique positions. I plan on looking into more of these fun careers next week.

So please come back to read more. Maybe I can help you make your next career move.

Until next time…my birthday is in a few days, so feel free to send me a bunch of LEGO sets for me to play with. Pretty please!! :D

*Compliments, general feedback, and constructive criticism are welcome. Any haters that are gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate can go step on some Lego with their bare feet.*