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BrandMotion

LEGO Design Team

An internal identity for the LEGO Design Team: a logo built from the studs of a 2 x 3 brick, a bright colour palette, a fifth element to play with, animations and a brand deck.

Client
The LEGO Group (internal)
Year
2021
My role
Logo, identity & motion (design intern)
Deliverables
Logo, colour palette, fifth element, animations, brand deck
Team
With Nikolett Kapronczai, supervised by Nicole Valdes Wallace
Where
LEGO Design & Innovation Excellence, Billund
Close-up of a pink sweatshirt with the LEGO DESIGN logo printed in purple on the chest, the E made of six studs

The challenge

During my internship in the Design & Innovation Excellence team at The LEGO Group in Billund, I joined a project led by Communication Manager Nicole Valdes Wallace. The LEGO Design Team had nothing of its own to stand behind. The brief: create an internal identity the team could represent itself with, and use it to strengthen the spirit between colleagues across the whole organisation.

The idea

Together with fellow intern Nikolett Kapronczai I worked on the research and development of the identity. My take on the logo started with a single letter. The three bars of the E became three rows of studs, so the word DESIGN now holds a 2 x 3 brick seen from above. It reads straight away, it could only be LEGO, and it belongs to the people who design the bricks.

What I did

The logo and its lockups, the colour palette, a fifth element built from studs, animations for the logo and the pattern, and a brand deck that puts the identity to work in introductions, quotes and team stories.

Sketchbook page: crossed-out ideas with a whole brick and a stud as the i-dot, the chosen logo circled in red, the E turning into three rows of studs, and proportion notes
How the mark came together. A whole brick was too literal and a stud on the i too small. Rebuilding the E as 2 x 3 studs did it: three studs stack to exactly the cap height, and the gap between them matches the letter stems.
The logo in motion: TEAM swings under DESIGN and the horizontal lockup becomes the stacked one.
Colour palette as eight studs in a 2 x 4 grid: blue, red, yellow, green, orange, purple, pink and black
The palette, laid out like the studs on a 2 x 4 brick.
Eight versions of the logo: full colour on white and on black, and six one-colour pairings such as yellow on green, orange on purple, blue on pink, yellow on blue, purple on orange and pink on red
Full colour on white and black, plus one-colour pairings for when a single colour should lead.
Sketchbook page about the fifth element: a 2 x 3 brick whose studs pop off as confetti, the LEGO wooden duck rebuilt from coloured studs, empty and active studs, and a four-frame storyboard of the innovation loop
The fifth element. The studs pop off the logo and become a building tool: confetti, patterns, the classic LEGO wooden duck, and short stories in motion.
Millions of possibilities: studs fly in and rebuild the wooden duck, one of the first LEGO toys.
Innovation, one brick growing into an idea, and the studs clicking into place on a pink background. The loops were cut free from their original white backgrounds so they work on any colour in the palette.
The wooden duck built from white studs on pinkSix yellow studs on orange, the 2 x 3 brick from the logo
Social posts: the duck in studs, and the 2 x 3 brick on its own.
Brand deck slide: We see millions of possibilities within even only one idea, next to the duck outline with clusters of coloured studs
The brand deck opens with the team's mindset.
Introduction slide: Hej! My name is Alexander, Junior Designer, with a portrait on blue and yellowTeam slide with three portraits on pink and purple and short introductions in different languages
Introductions: studs as dotted lines and frames, a hello in each designer's own language.
Slide: We are a creative community from around the world, on pink with a dotted stud borderSlide: Women in design with Penelope, portrait framed in orange and pink studs
Statements and team stories, each in its own colour pairing from the palette.
Slide with figures, boats and planes built from quarter tiles and studs in yellow, pink and blue, above the line: We do our best to help the builders of tomorrow learn through play
Built from the same pieces: little figures, boats and planes made of studs and quarter tiles.

The result

A complete internal identity, from the logo and palette to a fifth element, motion and a brand deck. It was rolled out briefly after my internship ended, and the logo made it onto team merch.

For me it was a lesson in designing inside one of the strongest brands in the world: finding the small space where a team can be itself and still be unmistakably LEGO.

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