LEGO Creative Play Lab

Play Experience Design 2016-18

What is CPL?

You probably already know LEGO, the company that makes edgy plastic bricks that hurt a lot when stepping on them and sparks hours and hours of creativity and smiles. 

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Well, LEGO Creative Play Lab is the department in charge of developing the future of play and come up with radically new experiences and business models that challenge the way things are currently done.

My role as concept designer covered from desk research, identification of strategic opportunities and ideation, to concept development, prototyping and user testing.

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I had the chance to develop awesome projects in collaboration with a bunch of talented business developers, marketers, engineers and PMs, leading the creative direction and design processes in a fast project turnover.
 

The projects usually start with teams of 2 or 3 people and grew into different sizes on demand.

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The starting point could be a trend, a gap in the portfolio, a piece of technology or an opportunity to collaborate and learn together with other companies.

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Some of those seeded projects get pushed into the pipeline, the portfolio and others are piloted in order to test the waters.

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Learnings-

Through this experience, I learned how much more quickly to evaluate ideas and concepts and how to properly scale them as the project expanded and grew.

Also how to adapt and incorporate different styles of thinking and working into the project ideation and how to clearly communicate the fast changing ideas across different disciplines and teams.

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Press-

Some colleagues have talked about CPL's role in public media. 

Have a look if you are interested.

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Magnus Göransson – Play | The Conference 2018

Exploring the Future of Play

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LEGO Girls Front End

Play Experience and Narrative Design 2014-16 

What is it?

The Girls Front End was the new franchise generator for LEGO’s girl-driven business.

It focused on looking at long-term trends — looking 3+ years in the future — and adapting these future girls’ needs.

In these projects the narrative serves as a way of framing and inspiring new types of play within a new universe.

While I was there, the department focused in empowerment and creative confidence. The extensive research and insights gathered served as foundation for the franchises LEGO DC Superhero Girls and the LEGO Movie 2.

My role covered the translation of user needs and insights into new ways of playing with LEGO. Involving co-creations, team ideation and concept development through prototyping and testing.

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I also bridged the departments of Concept dev. and Engineering, helping translating ideas into its moulded versions and pushing the boundaries of what was possible in production.
 

The projects would incorporate a number of different streams: narrative, building sets, trends and user-needs research, and new play experiences with teams of 20+ experts.

They followed a traditional waterfall development model where the insights and validated concepts would be handover to a product development team.

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Other cool companies

relevant experiences

Pacproject  // Packaging Design

Pacproject is a packaging strategy and development agency located in Hamburg, Germany, focused in consulting of packaging design and innovation in strategy, branding and packaging development.

My main role was the ideation of innovative packaging concepts through 2D sketching, and 3D physical prototyping.

I worked with a wide range of materials for a variety of large companies and organisations in detergents, personal care, FMCG and confectionary.

During this time I collaborated with graphic designers and structural technicians in order to fully develop functional concepts.
I also developed few ideas that translated new or emerging user needs into packaging solutions that took part in various packaging design conventions.

Wine box Concept -

Building experience 2014

Raimund Bauer  // Stage Design

Raimund and his team focuses primarily in the creation of sets for opera productions across the world.

I had the chance to work in the field for a few months and learn about stage design: from the conceptual work of analysing scripts and translating it into tangible stage models to the logistical considerations of each specific theatre and the restrictions of space and technologies available. 


I produced a number of highly detailed models that assisted the development of larger-scale productions for shows across Germany and Austria.

"Schönes" 

Schauspielhaus Zürich 2013

SEAT // Automotive design

As an intern in SEAT, I worked in the Exterior Components and Lighting department within the SEAT's Design center in Barcelona. 

The first part of my time there was project based: I was creating a number of sketches and prototypes around exterior car components and illumination for future development.

The second, and what took up most of my time there, was the development of a concept that explored the idea of lighting as an integral part of the machine’s body, dictating its shape and character

and connecting interior and exterior, altering the driver’s emotions in a way that tangible materials can't.

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As research I created a series of explorative sculptures that play with the idea of light and shape.

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Have a look!

"Light and shape" 

SEAT Lighting Design Concept 2012