Designed for Design
Notwithstanding barefoot nighttime encounters with errant pieces, one must admit that Legos are pretty amazing. For nearly a century, these precision plastic bricks have provided endless entertainment for children and adults alike. Based in Denmark, the Lego company makes billions of bricks a year at a rate of 11,000 per second. Practical design rules for tiles and bricks and precision micron-scale tolerances enable tightly gripping, interlocking pieces that children can disassemble. More than a toy, Lego designs their products for design. They are designed for designers.
Our first designer is George. He is 8 years old. He uses his imagination to create towers, buildings, cars, and contraptions. Some designs are better than others, and later inventions incorporate improvements gleaned from earlier experiments. All fit within the degrees of freedom the bricks provide. Some might think these boundaries limit creativity. In fact, the boundaries provide finite degrees of freedom to stimulate creativity. Would you like to meet George? He would be delighted to tell you about his latest invention.
Our second designer is Hans. He is 30 years old and works for the Lego company. He designs models of spaceships, castles, movie sets, and cranes. He starts with an inventory of existing Lego parts but has the additional freedom to specify new parts with certain shapes and colors. Nevertheless, these new parts need to fit within the design constraints of the manufacturing equipment, safety standards, and the need for compatibility with other Lego parts. Would you like to meet Hans? He could tell you about upcoming plans for the next products, secrets to designing with motors and gears, and more.
Our third designer is Rita. She is 10 and the proud owner of a Star Wars Death Star. Her family helped assemble the 4000-piece model from detailed instructions. Oblivious to the emperor’s destructive schemes, she adores her doll house. The rooms have interesting characters, decorations, and objects. Would you like to meet Rita? She could introduce you to her friends and share conversations they are having. She may even tell you about her plans for a tea party. You are invited and so is Buzz Lightyear!
Our fourth designer is Mike. Mike is 12. Mike wants you to know all about his multi-wheeled crane. Its rotatable telescoping mast and selection of scoops, hooks, and shovels provide just the right toolset for many a challenge. It is a critical piece in Mike’s latest construction project. The crane mines Lego bricks, loads them onto a truck for transportation to his construction site across the room. This latest building could be a ceiling scraper.
Have you considered the design of the universe? It is made for design. Without fine tuning, it is far more likely that the universe would be made of only hydrogen, not the many elements of the periodic table. But without carbon, oxygen, or iron, there would be no rocky planets to host life, no breathable air in the atmosphere, and no one to design Legos for Rita and Mike to enjoy. That’s not a livable world.
Our world has a designer. Would you like to meet Him?
