Dream job: Lego Group designer

Originally from Edinburgh, Jordan Scott now lives in Veijle, Denmark, where he’s a Lego Group designer. Yup, that means his job is playing with Lego.

I never dreamed I’d land a job like this. I studied Product Design at Napier University and my final year designs (toys for children with autism) were showcased at the London New Designers exhibition, where someone from the Lego Group approached me. I was speechless. They invited me to an intense two-day workshop, and a week later I was offered junior designer on the Lego The Hobbit project. That was six years ago and now I’m a senior designer.

The craziest thing I’ve built is the Lego Metalbeard’s Sea Cow from The Lego Movie. It was huge, a bonkers shape for a pirate ship and had so many small details. It was an honour to work on the Lego Star Wars Snowspeeder because I’ve always been a huge fan – I’m just a big geek really! It’s a huge privilege to be given the responsibility of designing an Ultimate Collector Series model.

There’s no ‘typical day at work’, but there’s a lot of coffee. I’m currently in The Lego Movie 2 team, but I can’t say too much as everything’s in development. As a senior designer, I also have the responsibility of mentoring a new junior designer.

The best thing about my job is seeing the excitement in a child’s eyes when they see a box I had a part in designing. It’s a great feeling to know that something I love doing has such an impact on people. Some kids and fans get really excited and ask for autographs and photos. Seriously! My 10 year-old self would most definitely be impressed. I played with Lego every day after school while watching Art Attack.

I would tell any aspiring designers to develop their creativity in as many ways possible: build, draw, write, imagine. You never know where it’ll take you.

Image credit: ©2017 The LEGO Group. Used with permission