Let’s talk a bit about yourself first: who are you? What do you do, where do you come from?
I’m a American graphic designer that has been in the hobby since 2000. In that time, I have done work with events, building, and now publishing with the LEGO Hobby. With the LEGO Group, I have done some projects, some known, some not:-).
BrickJournal is perhaps your biggest personal project. Can you give us a brief history, the current status and some future plans?
BrickJournal is my biggest and probably best project. It started out as an idea to do some kind of publication to showcase the community – and began in 2005. With the resources available within the community, our first issue was out summer 2005, and by 2006, had gotten the attention of the LEGO Group.
Currently, BrickJournal is growing its base of readers – one of the ongoing challenges is getting the magazine to a point where it can sustain itself, and I and my publisher are working on. Future projects include expansion into other geographical areas, possible translations, and working closer with the LEGO Group to have more insight behind the company. Further ideas include video and a website overhaul.
Regarding 10200 Custom Car Garage:
You took part in the last Factory Set. What, in the set, is your work?
The garage is the most obvious model. In the cars, I did only a small idea here and there, most notably the rumble seat.
How did you enter the 10200 design team?
I had been interested in a Factory Set for some time, and it turns out when the LEGO Group was looking for some hot rod builders, they found my old car models on Brickshelf!
The three cars and the garage are ideas of the AFOLs involved, or are they LEGO’s idea? What did LEGO ask from the set?
For the most part, these were our ideas. One distinct differenece is the garage. We wanted a diner or drive-in restaurant, but LEGO wanted a garage. As a result, the diner and drive-in became alternate models.
Can you describe the creative process? With dates, if possible.
We were contacted in May of last year and had to help select parts from the palette for the set. From there, design started in October (yes that was a long time, but most of that was getting LEGO Digital designer set upwith teh new parts and other internal things) and we literally brainstormed the ideas and models from October to December. Everything was completed on our side by the end of 2007.
Are the cars inspired by real ones?
Sort of. While the time period set for the set was the ’50s, it was decided not to design cars that looked specifically like a 50s car, as we could get into copyright infringement issues if we did a 57 Chevy.
Usually all the parts from a Factory Set appear also in Shop@Home’s Pick a Brick. Did the AFOLs involved in the design of this set think of that? Which parts will be added?
Oh yes, and you’ll see those soon enough. We got to select 50 parts, although I cannot recall them all:-)
Will there be instructions or LDD files available for the alternate models?
The CD with teh set has many of the alternates. I actually hit my stride on car building after deadline, so many of the alternates are mine!
Doing a set for LEGO is a dream for almost every AFOL. How do you feel being in a project of this kind?
It’s an honor and a responsbility – being selected by TLG is a nice compliment, and as a fan designer, I had to do my best to show what we could do. I think the set is a great example of fans and LEGO working together to make something special.
Personally, it makes me want to do another!
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Irá haver um artigo maior sobre este conjunto no próximo número do BrickJournal.
Fotografia do Joe por mhuffman e do conjunto pela LEGO.