Dec 18

Dec 18 The LEGO Brick

Introduction

Time magazine ranked LEGO® the most influential toy of all time [1]. Few of us will disagree.

From a design perspective, the genius of LEGO is it’s impeccable, and surprisingly robust, modularity. It has made LEGO timeless and the atom of creativity for generations of people all over the world. This was, after all, the goal of LEGO’s founder Ole Kirk Christiansen to create the ultimate modular play system. The unusual compatibility of LEGO elements was not an accident that the LEGO company stumbled upon, it was deliberate and thoughtful, and in many ways has enabled it to become the largest toy company in the world.

To more fully appreciate LEGO’s modularity, let us consider the obvious and non-obvious ways the LEGO element design allows for nearly infinite compatibility [Fig. 1].

First, there is the obvious modularity – the millions of ways to assemble a set of bricks using the stud and tube interface (See Figure). Ignoring basic color combinations there are 915,103,765 ways to assemble six 2x4 LEGO bricks together [2]. This obvious modularity was anticipated by Christiansen, and was the genesis of the play system idea. It is what makes LEGO bricks interesting at a basic level that appeals to all ages in every culture. As we all know, this kind of modular building brick means that all architectural styles, all types of vehicles, and all kinds of objects can be modeled at some level with LEGO.

Perhaps more important than the modularity just described is the non-obvious modularity. This is what allows creative people everywhere to assemble LEGO bricks in ways the company never anticipated. This is the real magic of LEGO products. To illustrate this, consider the four-scoop ice cream--an element of the LEGO ice cream cone. The LEGO Group’s non-obvious modularity allows the ice cream scoops to be lined up such that their top scoops act like studs (See figure). Further, the scoops are at just the right height to be integrated fully into the building system.

The brilliance of this is that the scoop transcends being just a pile of ice cream. It can now be used for ball and socket joints, smoke billowing from an exhaust pipe or contrails shooting from a rocket. Because of this non-obvious modularity, every LEGO element can become more than what the LEGO designer envisioned it to be [Fig 4, 5, 6].

Imagine for a moment two formidable competitors: Tinker Toys, and Erector Sets. Their modularity is, for the most part, only obvious. For Tinker Toys, the poles fit into the hubs. And that’s about it. The hubs are pretty much always hubs, and the poles are always poles. For erector sets, nuts and bolts are always nuts and bolts, and the way they are used is obvious and consistent. These elements rarely, if ever, transcend their original purpose. LEGO is different, and there is a key reason for it -- it’s the LEGO unit.

The LEGO Unit

What enables LEGO’s obvious and non-obvious modularity is the deliberate choice of, and adherence to, a prescribed geometric basis – the LEGO Unit (LU). See photos of the dimensioning. As much as possible, the dimensions on each LEGO element are integer-multiples of the LEGO Unit or clean fractions of it. For example, the height of all LEGO studs is 1 LU, the diameter of all studs is 3 LU, the width of 1 x ___ elements is 5 LU, the height of bricks is 6 LU, the height of plates is 2 LU, and so on.

Why is this so important? When it’s time for a LEGO designer to create a new element, like a pile of four ice cream scoops, it’s pretty clear what the diameter of each ice cream scoop should be – 3 LU. Thus, the scoop will naturally fit into anything a LEGO stud could.

Respect for and adherence to the LEGO Unit has given LEGO elements their timelessness and the company its competitive advantage. The first LEGO bricks made in 1958 were consistent with the LEGO Unit, meaning they fit with the bricks made today. As a result, LEGO products rarely show up in a thrift store because they don’t lose their value. They were just as valuable 50 years ago as they will be 50 years from now.

There are thousands of LEGO elements all consistent with the LEGO Unit. Every year the company produces a few new parts, which are added to the family of building elements. Due to their compatibility, the possibilities are much more expansive than their competitors’ who enter the market with only a few hundred building pieces.

Adherence to the LEGO unit puts full creativity into the hands of builders. This authenticity in the building system means builders can think differently than the LEGO element designers to create truly innovative things.

To illustrate what the LEGO Unit has offered to the world’s largest toy company, consider the following.

A few key ratios inherent in the LEGO Unit prove vital in the design of bricks, plates, and other elements upon which the LEGO Group is established. The most utilized and perhaps intuitively understood is 1:3; three plates stacked add to become the height of one brick. This ratio has become so valuable that the ratio itself has become the basis of another unit of measurement known as the “Fundamental LEGO Unit” (FLU). Similarly, we see that a stack of five plates adds to the same height as the length 2x__ elements (as in the same size as the width of a 2x4 brick, for example). Additionally, as the 5:6 width to height ratio is scaled up, we can see applications such as in figure 3.

Most cursory building with LEGO bricks involves stacking one atop the other. However, these simple ratio examples become ever more prominent when working with SNOT. SNOT, in the LEGO world is an acronym for Studs Not On Top. It is a style of building that, unlike building up, involves building laterally. Arguably, the most well recognized and influential SNOT brick is the Headlight Brick.

Invented by Erling Didericksen it is also commonly called an Erling brick. While its original design was solely for headlights, it has given way to a wealth of new building possibilities. Elements such as this allow for new interesting connections to be made while maintaining the key ratios and units that tie the LEGO System together all through the LEGO Unit. See how a similar element with studs on each side (Travis Brick), coupled with simple studs allows for a structure that perfectly emulates a column? [Fig 11]

Fig. 11 - Applying ratios inherent in LEGO Bricks gives exciting results)

Now, most SNOT bricks are made with such functionality in mind, however, due to the adherence to the LEGO Unit and key ratios, numberless elements can be manipulated and placed together in unconventional ways. A push-broom head naturally fits into a 2x1 brick, clips intended for rods and mini-figure accessories attach to the inner tubes of 1x__ plates and bricks, and panels naturally slide into the underside of a 2x4 brick. Even mini-figures’ hands at 3 LU in diameter can work perfectly as studs on the underside of a plate creating a pattern fit for a rooftop or a shag rug. With a system built entirely around compatibility through the LEGO Unit and its ratios, the possibilities are, quite literally, infinite. [Fig 12, 13, 14, 15]

Conclusion

Excellent design such as this is deliberate, not accidental. It is meticulously planned and thought out. The creation of the LEGO Unit was not only a meaningful piece of LEGO history but rather a fundamental player in modern LEGO design culture. Ultimately what the LEGO Unit enables is a play system that truly puts the user in control. It’s no surprise the market loves this toy. It’s proven so by buying more than 600 billion bricks produced to date. Enough for every person on the planet to have 81 pieces. And, if you, the reader, are anything like us here at the BYU Design Review, there may just be some LEGO sets in your near future this holiday season. Hopefully, you will find a new and deeper appreciation for the design of these elements as you, a family member, or a friend unwraps their newest batch of LEGO products.

[1] The 13 Most Influential Toys of All Time by Olivia B. Waxman, October 29, 2014.