The Standard of Living Package

Buckminster Fuller, an American architect, author, designer, inventor and a man ahead of his time, assigned forty students from the Institute of Design in Chicago, to create a standard living package. Although some of the ideas and products they used in theirs worked I would change a few things and for the standard living of today. Many gathered up expensive bulky furniture, they also used the top of the line dishwasher and kitchen appliances. Certainly they had their reasons, however I would personally spare the bulky expensive furniture and go with maybe one couch and then stick with a more minimalist approach to obtain more items in the area given.

If there were six people living in the area I would have three rooms with two and a half baths. I would then also have a place for a woodshop and garden. I would have the common kitchen appliances: fridge, freezer, kitchen aid, microwave, oven, grill, and etc. I would also have a computer or two with a large 3D printer, to be able to make things along the way. I would also have a few other things the students had put into theirs. I would have some recreational equipment, and also outdoor gear and emergency equipment. Technology is large in this era of time so I would have a camera and smaller objects that could provide education, entertainment, and creativity. There are many things that could go into a standard living package and it would take a good amount of time to figure out what would be best. I do believe what I have already mentioned I would put in a package like this. It would have been interesting to be apart of that group directed by Buckminster and see what their thoughts were in this project. 

The LEGO Group Part 2

_{LEGO bricks are to some just another child’s toy, some the brick is a hard plastic object just waiting to pierce their bare feet, however, to others, and myself, LEGO opened up a brand new and imaginative world, which offered anyone the opportunity to be expressive and enjoy life. And because of a Denmark carpenter, Ole Kirk Kristiansen, this LEGO world has grown over 80 years. The Kirk Kristiansen family, of Denmark, started the LEGO Group in 1932 and the LEGO Group is still privately owned and is run by Kjeld Kirk Kristensen, a grandson of Ole Kirk Kristiansen. For most people LEGO Group is simply known as LEGO. The LEGO name is an abbreviation of two Danish words, “leg godt”, meaning, “play well”. These two words describe LEGO products precisely. The LEGO Group is original and creative and has been doing what they do best for years now. LEGO has done very well on focusing on the concept to “play well”. In 1958, when the present brick was introduced and launched, LEGO stuck with a certain kind of style, and has shown, through design, creative thinking, little falters here and there, and having fun, that design can carry on through the ages.}

_{Most people, through one way or another, can recount an experience they have had with LEGO. Maybe building that epic “Star Wars Death Star”, building your own remote control car, or being the person to have to clean them all up. Either way, some how, the LEGO Group has impacted many people through out history. LEGO is perhaps one of the most recognized names in the world, and as it states in the book, “Brick by Brick,” “with the possible exception of Apple, arguably no brand sparks as much cultlike devotion as LEGO.” And because one LEGO brick combined with another and anther has the capability to be turned into cars, sculptures, calendars, art, hours of being sucked into a new realm, and turning adults into kids, it is important to look back and understand how the LEGO Group has successfully done so. It is also important to appreciate how their way of designing has created this fixation and passion to a plastic brick.}

_{LEGO- Piecing Together the History}

_{Beginning in 1932 Ole Kirk Kristiansen stared up a business in Billund, Denmark, where he manufactured stepladders, stools, and wooden toys. Between 1932 to 1939 the name LEGO was adopted into the carpenter’s firms name, LEGO produced the famous LEGO Duck, the firm had 10 employees and LEGO’s motto was cut out and hung up for all their workers to see, “Only the best is good enough”. The LEGO Group has stuck by this motto ever since and you can see this throughout their work ever since. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, who became manager in 1956 “once, approved a shipment of wooden toys with two rather than the mandated three coats of varnish, Ole Kirk Kristiansen dispatched him to the train station to retrieve the ill-made toys and made him stay up all night adding the third coat.” Kristiansen made sure that LEGO’s work would keep to their motto. This dedication in design and not faltering has pushed LEGO to be one of the most successful design firms to this day. In 1946 Ole Kirk Kristiansen was the first Danish toy makers to purchase an injection molding machine. He revolutionized the industry of toys buy doing so. Today most plastic toys are now being injection molded. Ole Kirk Kristiansen was a pioneer in his day and put dedication into his work. He also, along with his family who still own the firm, believed in their work. The LEGO Group has shown that you don’t need to always give up quality and what you believe in to come out on top. By laying down a foundation first, and building on top of that, you can have tremendous results. Design is about making your product work, but making sure it will stand the test of time, making sure it is quality, and making sure you’re doing it to inspire creativity. As Brian Reed once put it, “Everything is designed. Few things are designed well.” Although LEGO fell into record losses around the years 2001 to 2009, LEGO has now started to innovate once again and has profited over 38% in the last 5 years.}

_{Design Methods & Philosophy}

_{As stated previously, the LEGO Group started out their philosophy with “Only the best is good enough”. Ole Kirk Kristiansen also “had the critical insight that Lego was not a toy, but instead a "system of play". This meant that all Lego blocks were compatible with all other Lego blocks”. The design methods behind LEGO were simple. Manufacture a quality product and to keep the details of the LEGO brick design the same. “You can take a LEGO brick built in 1958 and snap it together with a brick from 2008 as if fifty years had never happened.” LEGO started loosing insight on this during and around 2001 when they started to forget about that kids do want to keep building and piecing things together and not just have another action figure. They came out with a new line, “less buildable and more playable.” This hurt them immensely. “Think GI Joe instead of bricks. Jack Stone an oversized minifigure, stepped out in 2001 as LEGO’s new world hero…and failed miserably.  The majority of kids didn’t care about a fabricated character without history or context. The pieces comprising the toy sets required expensive new injection molds, making it unprofitable to turn out. But the most egregious error? It alienated its core fans – adults and parents who grew up with LEGO bricks – for abandoning its classic play values: “Joy of building, pride of creation.” LEGO came back by a way of two approaches. They started to grasp the idea that kids still want to build and create in this new technological world and that adults still have a strong passion for LEGOs. SO with these two things in mind, LEGO started in “2009, to introduced a well-received line of buildable board games, like Lego Minotaurus.” They also gave in and realized kids grow off of good competition, which LEGO wasn’t too fond of encouraging competition for a long time. They have now started to create video games and also an animated film, which will be airing in 2014. The LEGO Group has gained popularity with adults, and, no, not just because of their kids. LEGOs have been such a large part of adult’s childhoods and have also sparked so many memorable moments. The LEGO brick has carried on and given everyone his or her own way to open up and be creative. They can design what they want and construct their own personal creations. One example, of several, is the LEGO Calendar, a wall-mounted time planner created by Vitamins Design located in London, England. ­ “The Brit designers used green, yellow, blue, orange and pink blocks to track what projects everyone’s working on in the studio. At a glance, you can look at the wall and see what everyone’s doing and what projects are getting the most investment of time on any given day, week or month. Even better, while it may be made entirely of the tactile toys, you can take a photo of it with a smart phone, and all of the events become magically synchronized with an online digital calendar.”, stated by Mary Schumacher. This just shows that LEGO can keep on improving with new ideas and that even the business environment is being creative with the LEGO bricks.}

_{Design work & visual characteristics­}

_{The LEGO Group, for the majority of years it has been up and running, has had a specific look to it. It is unmistakable to point out a LEGO product. Ever since 1958 when Ole Kirk Kristiansen patented LEGO’s brick, they still make it to this day. The visual characteristics are found in the blocky shapes of their toys and products. They keep to very distinctive colors, like yellow and red. They first started off with those colors and kept with the primary colors. Today LEGO carries and has supplied numerous colors of bricks for everyone to enjoy, but still having their main yellow and red bricks always in production. They once strayed from their blocky minifigures and tried to create a taller skinner action hero. They realized soon enough that isn’t what LEGO is and eventually came back to the loveable blocky characters that everyone enjoys and remembers. It is hard to stick with an idea and go with it, especially over 80 years of design. Trying to always keep that form and function in your design concept is tricky, however, LEGO somehow found a way to create something that almost has no end to the vast possibilities of what you can do with the LEGO brick. Today and throughout, the LEGO Groups, history LEGO has had to design around kids and ability to stir up their imaginations. You can see this through their genres of sets. In some cases the genres have been focused on characters from movies, they have been created from ninjas, pirates, to aliens, to deep-sea adventures. The design teams now have used technology to help in this, by creating buildable board games and producing LEGO movies. As previously touched on earlier, now even adults are becoming interested in LEGOs once more and or for the first time. LEGO has now even come out with the architecture studio sets, which is geared more towards adults and helping them in design.}

                  _{The LEGO Group has been innovated, creative, smart, and has stuck by their motto, “Only the best is good enough”. LEGO has always been a large part of my life and childhood; I hope it can be apart of the future generations as well. LEGO has done well, through design, to help build up peoples imaginations and to care enough to make a positive impact.}

                                       _{by Jon Paul White}