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Fuma Terai is not a Lego designer. Based in Japan, he is far away from Billund, the small Danish town where all the companys official design work happens. And yet, Terai is responsible for one of Lego’s best sets of the year: Gizmo, the iconic creature from Joe Dante’s 1984 classic Gremlins. In 2024, Terai submitted an adorable Mogwai as part of 80s design challenge from Lego Ideas, the companys crowdsourcing community platform that turns fan ideas into real sets. More than a year later, his idea is now selling for $110 on Legos website. Building a Lego set is an exhaustive process that marries creativity and technical precision. Before fans ever see a finished Lego product on shelves, its creation demanded a special negotiation between structural strength and playability, realism and abstraction. Lego designers have always needed to resolve impossible-seeming tensions to bring a set to life, and the creation of Gizmo, with his expressive features and fur, forced this process to its limits. Chris McVeigh, Lego senior model designer, says creating Gizmolike many other Lego setsrequires playing geometric tricks on the builders mind. There’s a lot of nuance to the shaping, McVeigh says. How can I round this corner in just the right way? How can I fill it in? How can I fill this in and make it look organic? Where is the abstraction? 10,000 votes and counting Gizmo, codenamed Project Midnight internally, was born from Legos Ideas platform, which crowdsources ideas for new sets from Legos biggest fans, as part of its 80s challenge. After Terai uploaded his design, it quickly garnered more than 10,000 votesa number that automatically triggers Legos internal review process. [Screenshot: Lego Ideas] Monica Pedersen, Lego Ideas’ marketing director, says the first step is for Legos team to check for feasibility: can this physically be built? Are there intellectual property conflicts? Then there is a review of the submitting designeris the fan a good person who can represent the Lego brand? After those questions are answered regional sales teams and retail experts evaluate commercial viability across different markets. Fuma Terai [Photo: Lego] We basically screen for design feasibility. Can it be built in real life? Are there restrictions that we cannot adhere to? Pedersen says. Out of 177 product ideas that hit 10,000 votes last year, only five survived this winnowing process. The redesign challenge Most of the time, Lego designers take a fans creation and rework it from scratch. One of the things that we decided on fairly early was that we wanted a little bit more nuance to the shaping than what we could see in the fan model, McVeigh says. McVeigh’s process began with what he calls reference image workmeasuring proportions carefully against the original Gizmo puppet, determining scale through draw-overs, and identifying the key element that would define everything else. To do that, he needs to draw it. Chris McVeigh [Photo: Lego] Part of my process is to do drawing. This is something that goes back to my art teacher in high school, who always said that you don’t really understand something until you have drawn it, he tells me. With Gizmo, he only did a couple of sketches, to make sure that he got the scale right. The eyes became the project’s North Star for the project design for two reasons. First, he needed to get them right to match the characters warmth and personality; Gizmos eyes are what defines him as a charming living creature. This included getting the eyeballs size and look right but also his eyelids. It was very important to the aesthetic of this model to have these eyelids positioned in a way that they were over the eye, McVeigh says. They could have painted the eyelids on a semi-spheric Lego piece that would act as his entire eye but they wanted to add a bit more dimension. The eye design set a blueprint for everything else: The key element was really the eye size and the size of the model and everything else just was tied to that, he explains. How the eyes would work was determined very early on with some brick-built mock-ups. The completed Gizmo uses 1,125 bricks and measures over 8 inches high, 10.5 inches wide, and 3.5 inches deep in standing posesignificantly larger than Terai’s original concept. The size of the build has increased since I submitted my design on Lego Ideas, Terai tells me with satisfaction. [Photo: Lego] The art of organic abstraction For McVeigh, the relative similarity between his first physical prototype and the final product reflects successful upfront digital work. The first built prototype I made doesn’t look that different from the final model, he says. But beneath that surface consistency lay months of refinementstructural improvements, articulation engineering, and the careful balance between organic suggestion and geometric reality. McVeigh had to find ways to suggest flowing hair and conjure the little Mogwai’s button nose. His job was to solve the three-dimensional problem of organic shapes with bricks. He knows that the magic happens the moment a persons brain translates a cluster of simple plastic forms into the illusion of fur, flesh, or fabric. [Image: Lego] Working digitally in Lego’s internal design tool, McVeigh started with a wireframeshoulder points, pelvic points, basic proportionsbefore tackling the model’s greatest challenge: making plastic bricks that suggest organic fur and flesh. One of the interesting challenges when you’re doing creatures is to give a sense of volume of hair when you are using Lego bricks, McVeigh says. His solution relied on a specific element: a small 2×2 plate with an upturned corner that he had originally developed for Himeji Castle‘s roof edges, a Lego Architecture set released in 2023. I decided to use that to give the effect of wispy hair flowing off the model, he recalls. I wanted to make sure that I use that in several places in the model so that the aesthetic was felt throughout. [Images: Lego] This approach exemplifies what McVeigh calls abstractionthe crucial decision of where the model is going to be abstracted, where I know I can’t match something perfectly. And honestly, I think that’s part of what makes the product Lego-like, just that abstraction. The most challenging abstraction proved to be Gizmo’s nose. McVeigh started with large, flat designs, but they werent feeling quite right. McVeigh made the final change after a colleague’s gentle push: Is there something you could do about the nose? The original Lego Ideas submission (left) and the final nose design (right) [Photo: Lego] He started experimenting with half-circle and full-circle plates, the flat rounded plates with 1 x 2 or 2 x 2 Lego studs, the little round protuberances sporting the Lego logo that make pieces stick together. They were hard to put in the model and required a significant redesign, but he really wanted to use them because of how they could capture the impression of nostrils, he tells me. The final nose solution demonstrates the psychological cleverness underlying Lego design. The 2×2 round plate, with its subtle cutouts on its edge, really sells the idea that it’s a nose by fooling the brain into seeing nostrils where none exist. It’s one of the exciting things about Lego, McVeigh says. The brain fills the blanks. The final model has two poses: standing and sitting. Players will have to choose which pose in advance, however, as Gizmo wont move on its own. This is sometimes implemented in Lego builds with what McVeigh calls a branch build in the instructions: At some point during the building instructions you will be asked to choose between OK, do you want to build Gizmo standing up or would you like to build him sitting down? The model is not static, however. It features a rotating head, posable ears, articulated hands and arms, and leg rotation. [Photo: Lego] From a fans mind to store shelves Throughot the design process, Terai remained involved as what Pedersen calls an honorary Lego Ideas design member. McVeigh says that every time they showed Terai the progress that they had made, he would just light uphe was just grinning ear to ear. For McVeigh, capturing Gizmos soul in brick form is a perfect example of the prototypical Lego abstraction process. For Terai, it was a lesson in bringing an idea to life. Through working with the design team, I was able to see and understand how a product is created from start to finish, Terai says. I saw how they create a product. I have dreamed of designing Lego since I was a child, so it was a wonderful experience to be a part of.
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E-Commerce
When using AI, most of us worry about the technology hallucinatingtelling us lies, misinformation, or nonsense that it presents as fact. But legendary fashion designer Norma Kamali has no such fear. Over the past two years, Kamali has been using AI extensively in her work. Kamali, who recently celebrated her 80th birthday, partnered with computer scientists to create an AI platform based on her five decades of work as a designer, and she also took an AI course at MIT to better understand how the technology works. “These scientists asked if they could download my brain,” she says. “They would isolate my intellectual property, brand history, and archive. At first I said, “No way.” But I’ve come to see the possibilities for my brand.” Kamali has used her AI platform to design pieces for her own collection, including variations of her famous Sleeping Bag Coat. But she says that as she interacts with the AI, some of her favorite moments are when it hallucinates, generating bizarre images that explode with a strange kind of creativity. “The image is always a surprise,” she says. “If I say something like, I’d like to put a fishtail on this swimsuit worn with a sleeping bag coat, the AI goes crazy. It’s beyond gorgeous in the most art tech, fashion way.” As AI companies continue to refine the technology with the aim of eliminating mistakes, Kamali believes its only a matter of time before hallucinations no longer occur. But she says she’ll be sad when that time comes. In many ways, her open-minded approach to AI is a microcosm of her openness as a designer, which has paved the way to all kinds of unconventional, creative collaborations. “AI, for me, has been a really joyous experience,” she says. “We’re in this little moment in history that will eventually disappear. But then we’ll find other things to excite us.” [Photo: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Fast Company] Kamali launched her label in 1976 and became an overnight sensation when Farrah Fawcett wore one of her red bathing suits in a poster that same year. It’s ironic to Kamali that she first made her name with a swimsuit because she really didn’t like the version that Fawcett had purchased. “I would use my shop as a lab, making six of a new style to test and see what sold,” she recalls. “I had no idea she had come in and bought that one. I really hated it: I didn’t like the fit or anything about it, and quickly took it out of the shop.” Kamali is proudest of the moments when she’s been willing to innovate and explore ideas that to others may have seemed unconventional. She’s often proven to be far ahead of her time. In the early 1970s, for example, she created the Sleeping Bag Coat, inspired by a camping trip. The coat became iconic (its on display at MoMA), at a time when most coats were made of wool. It ended up being a precursor to the puffer coats that are now ubiquitous around the world in cold weather. Another cutting edge-design was her line of Sweats sportswear, which she launched in the 1980s. It was designed to be worn outside of the gym, three decades before the “athleisure” trend would take over modern life. Kamali hasn’t just been willing to take risks with design, she’s also been willing to try new things at retail. In 2003, Target began collaborating with designers to create more affordable versions of their clothing, starting with Isaac Mizrahi and Michael Graves. Walmart, on the other hand, was not known for being particularly design-oriented. But in the early 2000s, Kamali met with a Walmart buyer who proposed a partnership. Much like with AI, Kamali took a minute to think about it before she embraced it. “I was like, Oh my God, I’ve never been to Walmart,” she recalls thinking. Then she realized there was a need for smart, fashion-forward clothes at an affordable price point. She grew up going to public schools in New York City, and she knew there were many parents who didnt attend parent-teacher meetings because they didn’t have the right clothes. There were also teachers who couldnt afford to buy professional-looking clothes on their salaries. “I felt that teachers should dignify the position, and look amazing in front of the kids in their class,” she says. So Kamali created a wardrobe that was everything an adult would need to walk into a school and look polished: a trench coat, a white collared shirt, black trousers, ballet slippers, and pumps. She also worked hard to find manufacturers who could create these products at the best possible quality given the price point, which was less than $20 per item. The popularity of the collection became clear when Kamali noticed that people were reselling these products on eBay for upwards of $200 apiece. Ultimately, Kamali believes the success of her business has been all about being open to going in unconventional directions, and not following the status quo within the industry. This is another moment when she can redefine her work, and Kamali doesn’t want to miss the chance to engage in new creative outlets. There’s a lot of fear, but there’s so much more opportunity,” she says. “I’m having a wonderful time playing around with [AI] and asking it to play with my ideas.”
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E-Commerce
Your company has rolled out AI like its a new office uniform. Everyones using it. And unlike most uniforms, people are using it even when they are told not to. As a result, your inbox clears itself, your reports write themselves, and meetings collapse into neat little summaries at the click of a button. You may be even be fantasizing about sending your digital clone to those pointless meetings, and perhaps your colleagues have done so already (which may explain their perfect attendance record). And yet, theres a difference between outsourcing pointless tasks to AI, and making work better (which also requires you to figure out what to do with the time you save). Plainly put, if you are running faster in the wrong direction you will only get to the wrong place faster. This may explain the recent resurgence of an old paradox, Robert Solows law, which in the late 1980s noted that You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.” What are you really using AI for? Right now, most companies treat AI like an espresso shot for knowledge workers. A jolt to help fire off emails, draft decks, or summarize meetings. It feels like magic, but magic tricks dont grow the bottom line. Saving a few minutes here and there is like sweeping the kitchen when the roof is leaking. Part of AIs seduction is its smooth, conversational interface. Ask, and you shall receive. But business value doesnt appear by asking polite questions: It usually requires hard structural change. And so far, AIs biggest impact has been making existing processes leaner, often by replacing the interns and juniors who used to do that work. Think of it as corporate liposuction: It trims the fat, but it doesnt build new muscle. To be sure, as the great Peter Drucker noted, there is nothing so useless as to make more efficiently what should not be done at all, which may explain why, in a resurgence of Solows law, AI is everywhere except in the productivity stats. Cutting costs makes humans twitch Behavioral economists call it loss aversion: We hate losing more than we enjoy winning. Announce that AI will eliminate jobs, and people panic, even when the math adds up. History, though, shows a different pattern: As old tasks disappear, new ones emerge. Just as the rise of spreadsheets created a need for finance analysts, AI will create demand for data governance, ethics, and human oversight. The long arc of technology bends toward job growth, but the bumps along the way are brutal. The real promise of AI isnt subtraction, its addition Netflix recently used generative AI to add an impossible scene to a show, something too costly and complex with traditional methods. Thats the story leaders should chase: holding baseline costs steady and producing something better. AI at its best is not a fancier calculator; its a time machine that lets you create what yesterday was impossible. So what makes a great AI project? Right now, too many organizations are wandering around with a hammer, mistaking everything for a nail. A CEOs blanket mandate, everyone must use AI, is like ordering an army to march without telling them where the battle is. Great AI projects share three ingredients: Volume: Attack the most common, repetitive activities that drive your business. Shave seconds off the thing done a million times, and youve found your goldmine. Variability: Raise the floor. Get average performers closer to your best. Its like tightening a symphony so fewer notes are off-key. Human Glue: Fix the broken joints between systems. AI shines when it eliminates the soul-crushing cut-and-paste that holds organizations hostage. But heres the kicker: speeding up one cog in a broken machine doesnt make the whole machine run better. Unless you reimagine end-to-end processes (often across teams and departments) youre just moving bottlenecks around, and should really not expect great results. Data: the ceiling that caps your ambitions AI is like a gourmet chef: It can cook only with the ingredients you give it. If your data is stale, inconsistent, or scattered across warring silos, dont expect a Michelin-starred meal. Most firms have exquisite data in a few areas (finance, operations), but HR and talent data? Thats like a pantry filled with mystery cans. You know who got promoted, but not why. You feel when a team clicks, but cant quantify it in machine-readable terms. Without proprietary, well-structured data, your competitive advantage is just reheating the same meal as everyone else. Culture: the silent killer Even the sharpest AI project can crash into an organizations immune system. A culture obsessed with cost-cutting breeds fear. Misaligned incentives choke collaboration. A weak communication culture makes change management impossible. Remember, 80% of change projects fail, and AI doesnt get a free pass (it is still a change management task, and very much led by humans). Layoffs may feel like the obvious shortcut, but decades of research show that slashing headcount first is like burning the furniture to heat the house. It buys a little time, but undermines long-term survival. Leaders need to show courage, humility, and clarity. Employees, meanwhile, can choose to be architects of change instead of passive victimsreimagining work, learning new skills, and using AI as a career lever rather than a threat. Doin Better Right now, too many firms are playing the corporate equivalent of toddler soccer: everyone chasing the ball, no strategy, lots of shouting. Winning with AI depends on three foundations: The right technology, deployed against the right problems The right data, accurate and unique The right culture, aligned and prepared for change Everything else is noise. The lesson is clear: AI is not the main course, it is the fire. It can burn the house down, or it can cook a feast no one thought possible. What separates the two outcomes is not the cleverness of the algorithms, but the imagination of the people deploying them. If leaders see AI only as a knife for trimming costs, they will eventually cut into the bone of their own organizations. But if they see it as a telescope (an instrument that lets us glimpse horizons we couldnt see before) then AI becomes a catalyst for growth, innovation, and human potential. The future wont be won by those who use AI most quickly, but by those who use it most wisely: to create new value, to elevate human talent, and to turn technological possibility into strategic reality.
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E-Commerce
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