If there's one thing we love, it's a design mashup – and it doesn't get much better than a product collaboration between Scandi design headliners Lego and IKEA. Any Lego fan, or parent of Lego fan, knows the pain of seemingly abandoned Lego all over the floor (literally, when you step on one). But to pack it away might be to interrupt a work of building genius, and certainly interrupts any creative flow on the go. If only you could save the creations in the best cloud storage with your other design projects, eh?
Luckily, the creative minds of Lego and IKEA have come up with the ideal solution: a storage system, which doubles as a play structure. Named Bygglek, the system consists of white boxes in different sizes. So far, so simple, right? But the boxes are covered in Lego studs – on the top, bottom and interior, so they can be used as part of the building fun and to build your very own Lego art. They are also stackable so can be moved easily.
The storage system is totally stackable (Image credit: Ikea)
Children were firmly at the centre of the project, which called on the expertise of child psychologists. The aim was to create a storage system that empowers creativity and smashes the limitations put on children's imaginations by an adults' need for order (read more about it on Ikea's website).
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Rasmus Buch Løgstrup, the Lego designer at the forefront of the project, remembers Lego as being solely a weekend activity, due to the mess it created. But he had an idea to change things for kids today.
"What if we could turn that perceived mess into something wonderful?" Løgstrup said. "In the work with Bygglek, we talked about how you can play and pause without scattering your project all over the floor".
You can build on, in and around the box (Image credit: Ikea)
Bygglek means children can leave a Lego project unfinished and easily return to it later so imaginative flow is not interrupted by tidy-up time, and there's no starting again from the beginning. The system is designed to be a part of the play, with the building happening in, on and around it. As Løgstrup suggests, "the box itself can be a house, a swimming pool, a sport arena. There is no right or wrong."
Although it's a system created for children, we think adult creatives would get a lot of use out of it, too. Using the best Lego sets for adults may be an awesome challenge, but there's nothing quite like starting out with a pile of bricks and seeing where it takes you.
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Georgia has worked on Creative Bloq since 2018, and has been the site's Editor since 2023. With a specialism in branding and design, Georgia is also Programme Director of CB's award scheme – the Brand Impact Awards. As well as immersing herself with the industry through attending events like Adobe Max and the D&AD Awards and steering the site's content streams, Georgia has an eye on new commercial opportunities and ensuring they reflect the needs and interests of creatives.
