Shortly after the new CEO began turning around the Danish brick-maker’s business, ReD took on a project to develop insights and ideas for breakthrough innovations and to set up an innovation model that LEGO’s Concept Lab could use in their internal concept process.
By studying how children played, ReD concluded that, over the years, LEGO had lost its focus on the things kids need most: challenges and complexity. By defining six important areas of play that LEGO’s Concept team should integrate into future product designs, ReD gave LEGO a new platform for understanding childhood. ReD also recommended that designers watch how children play as part of their process.
Over the course of several other projects in 2006 and 2007, ReD created 16 prototypes for new product ideas, including LEGO’s first board games, and in 2008 ReD provided insights to LEGO Digital to help create a more compelling play experience for their online game LEGO Universe. ReD also steered LEGO to start producing their own intellectual property rather than hiring it out and to work with film companies, such as Warner Bros., to license movies, TV shows, and other media-related products from the stories LEGO creates.