JKR

Lego

Designing a great development tool which is also fun is an achievement in itself. But brilliant design is about brilliant systems - the intelligent and imaginative arrangement of individual components that combine to make a corporate identity, a chair or even a rocket. Lego truly is a world-class system. From its essence - the interaction of the primary coloured bricks, to the universe of interrelated ‘sets’, to its theme parks. To be a champion, you must be more than the sum of your parts.

Lego is also ergonomically amazing – not just for the children, but for adults. It’s tough, washable, with sets to fit most wallet sizes. The only flaw is its ability to cripple a parent bumbling about in the dark. Lego put the end user at the heart of the brand, and truly met their needs. It probably achieved this through intuition and intelligence rather than insight groups.

It’s also a company which has innovated through design on two levels. Firstly, by relentlessly perfecting the product from wooden blocks of the thirties, to binding blocks in the late forties, to the ’58 ‘stud and tube’ we know today. Secondly, by exploiting their new properties – they were the first Danish company to invest in injection moulded plastics. The Hula-Hoop also launched in ’58 and Frisbees hail from the same period. Funny how such early adopters of a new technology have endured.

Try this as a judgement criteria for effective design: genuinely beneficial, functional, affordable, collectable, sociable, memorable, flexible and of universal appeal. That’s (some of) what makes Lego a champion.

By Silas Amos, jkr. For the full article, see this week's copy of Marketing magazine.