In-depth interviews with Jamie Berard on Modular Buiding series and Creator Expert!

[henrysunset]

I had so much fun interviewing Jamie Berard about Creator Expert and the Modular Building Series earlier this year.  It's rare to get an opportunity to get inside the minds of the creative genius designers at LEGO, so I thought you might enjoy some selected highlights from the interview.  The interview was split into the following two parts:


Highlights from: ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴠɪᴇᴡ: Modular Building Series with Jamie Berard

In this interview, we discussed how Downtown Diner, and Parisian Restauraunt represented two major turning points in the series...

Jamie Berard: "Some people would say there are two stages of the modular, with #10243 Parisian Restaurant starting the second expression because we put more detail inside the building and focused a bit more on storytelling. As we approached the 10 year mark, we needed to be careful that we didn’t stay on auto-pilot, where it becomes too familiar and people can just predict the next one."

I surprised that one of the earlier sets wasn't very well received initially:

Jamie Berard: "I remember when we did the #10197 Fire Brigade. That one was not very well received in that people were horrified that it was too American; ... They said that the flag is hideous, although that I appreciate that and agree... Then they said it only has two floors, and everybody knows the modular have three floors. They had already defined in their mind what it should be."

We also got a chance to talk about how Creator Expert helped bring Teal back...

Jamie Berard: "We considered Medium Azure and some other blues. All of these complement the Dark Pink color we wanted to use for the convertible in this set. ... we thought this set was a nice way to bring teal back, and bring it back with a quantity of bricks.

We also talked about storytelling (ex: money laundering), and highlights his two favorite sets in the series! Link to full interview.




Highlights from: ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴠɪᴇᴡ: LEGO Creator Expert with Jamie Berard

Since my passion is LEGO Architecture, we talked at length about the large Architecture models (like Big Ben) in the Creator Expert series. I asked how they pick which buildings to create as sets:

Jamie Berard: "It is harder for us to accomplish contemporary, clean architecture in a large model, because of our target audience is adults. ... If you try to re-create any of the well-known architecture that is too minimalist ... in a LEGO version it comes across a bit naïve ... On the flip side, there’s a lot of great classic architecture that you can imagine in LEGO and know it’s gonna be great. I’d say anything “old world” looks great in LEGO because we have a lot of opportunities for details, texture, implying different stonework or materials."

I was surprised to hear that they struggle to wrap there heads around what deserves the "Creator Expert" label.
 

Jamie Berard: "But how do you perceive what makes it Expert? This is an internal question we are trying to resolve…"

 

We also learned which building in the Creator Expert was most challenging to get right, and might have still been a bit disappointing in the end.  It was fun hearing how much enthusiasm he has about his work, something you may have already noticed when watching his Designer Videos.  Link to full interview.


Sincerely,
---tom

 

P.S. For practical reasons, these were just a few of my favorite excerpts from the full interviews at brickarchitect.com website.  I hope you enjoyed the stories behind these great LEGO sets!

[binary_storm]

That was a great interview, thanks for posting it. ?

I thought this part was particularly telling, given how many people on these forums (myself included) react to new sets:

Quote

If I just listened to what everyone was saying, I would have thought it was the worst thing we created and ruined the entire line. Yet, with historic context I’m realizing that people just get comfortable with what they think is coming, and it’s uncomfortable to experience something new, and their first reaction is to explain what it should have been. When you give them a bit of time, many will come around to appreciate what they can discover later, and something like Fire Brigade can become one of our most successful ones, even though on paper it was the one that was going to ruin everything.

 

[Pseudoty]

 

[eliminator]

D2C print-on-demand retired Modular Buildings. It was only a matter of time. I need a drink.

 

 

 

 

....just kidding! Good overview of the 15 years of sets.