Lego has long been known as a source of enjoyable and wholesome toys for children. The inherent creativity that arises when connecting those bricks has served as our inspiration for these projects.
Following the success of Imagination’s collaboration with Lego on Children’s Day 2021 events, I had the opportunity to work on Lego Christmas 2021 & Chinese New Year 2022 events held in 10+ cities across China. The goal was to create a significant brand moment that would resonate with Chinese families, increase brand awareness, and remind parents why Lego is the ideal seasonal gift.
My role throughout these projects was to develop and expand digital designs across various applications and activations.
General Scope & Guideline
2021-2022 LEGO China Pop-up Events
After the successful implementation of the WeChat Mini-program for Children’s Day 2021, which provided valuable insights into consumer profiles and behaviors, we decided to build upon its user flow and expand the range of activities. During the organized events, my primary focus was on developing sustainable and child-friendly UI designs for various platforms:
WeChat H5 Pages
WeChat Mini-programs
Digital Souvenir Applications
Staff Control Applications
Typography
In my opinion, Noto Sans SC is an excellent font choice for Chinese language designs. Its extensive character set is a standout feature, ensuring versatility and compatibility. It has a balanced and readable design, avoiding the trap of appearing overly square or monotonous, even complex characters maintain clarity.
Icons
Throughout the event platforms, we employed line designs for representational icons, while filled designs were utilized for large icon buttons. This approach allowed us to create sizable buttons without altering the strokes, ensuring consistency. Moreover, it helped maintain clarity for icon call-to-actions (CTAs).
Main CTA
In addition to CTA icons, we integrated standard buttons with a pill design and Quest Cards that serve as CTAs to access mission pages. The pill design incorporates rounded corners, starting with a corner radius of 32px. This creates a friendly and playful appearance for the CTAs, and ensures visual harmony when they coexist on a single page.
Assets
Creation
Utilizing Bricklink’s Studio Software, I crafted a diverse collection of 3D LEGO assets to enhance our designs. The experience was highly enjoyable, akin to playing with LEGO bricks, but with a mouse! These design elements primarily serve as decorative elements, while some also provide guidance for creating physical LEGO artwork at the Christmas events.
Wechat Mini-program
Drawing inspiration from the Lego global campaign, “Unbuild Infinite Surprise,” our chosen theme was “Ever-Changing Christmas World.” To bring this concept to life, I created a collection of assets by blending the design elements from the global campaign, our unique 3D designs, and official LEGO media assets. These assets were utilized as decorations, backgrounds, and design elements for digital souvenirs.
To maintain visual consistency with the stand’s design, I adhered to a color palette limited to the campaign’s LEGO Deep Teal and LEGO brand VI colors. This ensured a cohesive and harmonious visual experience throughout the project.
To cater to the expected crowd of families with children attending the events, we designed the flow of the Mini-program to be child-friendly. The steps were made clear and simple, ensuring ease of use. Additionally, on-site staff members were available to provide assistance, as well as be a part of the experience.
Photobooth
During the Christmas Events, we set up a photo booth area at the center where visitors could capture photos with both the digital and physical Christmas tree.
A highlight of this experience was the Christmas Ornament creation challenge. Participants had the opportunity to design their own ornaments, scan them, and see their artwork transformed into a digital version that adorned the frame of their digital souvenir photos.
Print Station
In addition to being able to save and share the digital version of their photo souvenir, visitors had the option to receive a physical copy. They could visit the designated LEGO store, conveniently located within walking distance of the event stand, and print out their photo for free, using the QR code provided on the mini-program.
This strategic step aimed to encourage foot traffic to the store, creating opportunities for increased business engagement and customer interactions.
Wechat Mini-program
For the CNY Mini-program, we created a fresh visual based on the LEGO CNY KV, emphasizing their “Year of the Tiger” campaign. While the KV featured a vibrant and warm design with a pink cloudy sky, we adhered strictly to the brand’s VI color palette in the UI design. To ensure a seamless integration of the color palettes with the campaign VI, I incorporated 3D design elements and applied various effects to enhance visual harmony.
Within the Mini-program, we ensured a consistent flow while also introducing exciting new elements, like LEGO Chinese New Year phone wallpapers.
Assets
Creation
In addition to utilizing assets from the main KV, I crafted a distinct collection of LEGO design elements specifically for the CNY events. These elements were incorporated into various aspects of the design, including the red packet designs and screens such as Error, Not Found, or Empty Content. They added a touch of LEGO’s playful aesthetic and ensured visual consistency throughout the event experience.
Participants who successfully completed missions were rewarded with surprise digital souvenirs, including Lego phone wallpapers featuring diverse designs of red packets.
The design featured golden New Year wishes in Chinese and various LEGO family member characters, like cousins, grandparents and auntie, uncles… familiar relatives that one would see during Chinese New Year.
<span data-metadata=""><span data-buffer="">Red Packet station
In addition to the physical photo area, we presented a fun challenge where visitors were encouraged to create their own LEGO Red Packet. These custom creations could be scanned to generate a digital version, allowing participants to design their own digital red packet using their physical LEGO artwork. Visitors were then able to save and share this unique digital souvenir.
The steps involved in the LEGO Red Packet creation were designed to be simple and engaging, catering to our younger visitors. The process took place on a large HD screen, conveniently positioned at a height suitable for children. This setup allowed the little visitors to have a blast creating their own LEGO red packets, fostering their creativity and excitement.
Credits:
Phone Mockups: ls.graphics
Mini-program UX: Aki Chen, Weilin Li
3D Stands Design Renders & Event Photos: Imagination
Christmas Tree Build Instruction: R083R70