After toying around with ideas for the past 6 years, LEGO Superfan John Cramp has finally achieved his goal of designing a super cool product, which is being sold in stores across the world…
John’s design for an iconic red telephone box was chosen by LEGO as part of the company’s ‘Lego Ideas’ competition – something which is open to fans of the popular plastic bricks (and their bountiful imaginations).
Over the past six years, John has submitted several ideas to the contest – coming close but never quite clinching the cigar.
However, this year he finally achieved success with over 10,000 fans voting for his iconic phone box design. After being reviewed by bosses at the Danish company, it has now been made into an official LEGO set and is being sold in stores the world over.
For John, seeing his product on the shelves was the achievement of a lifetime – a childhood dream fulfilled!
“ I went down to the massive store in London, and seeing it on the shelves – that was a real ‘wow’ moment. That’s when it really hit me… ”
“Up until then I’d been pinching myself – I couldn’t believe that it had actually happened,” he revealed.
“Because I’d had three designs rejected previously (in the final stages) I didn’t want to get ahead of myself even though I knew it was a strong design.
“It’s something I’d been trying to achieve for such a long time and to actually see it on the shelves was a real dream come true,” he added.
“When I was down in London, the store got me to autograph loads of copies of the set, which was amazing. They sold out within a few hours…”
As well as getting a small cut of the profits from every set sold, the designer has been immortalised in the set’s instruction book and on the LEGO website.
It tells the story of the iconic K2 Red Telephone Box, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.
“I’ve always been interested in history and things like that, and I love the look of the classic red phone boxes,” explained the 43-year-old.
“A lot of younger people would probably look at them and not even realise what they were used for originally, but if you see a red phone box, straight away everyone recognises it as a symbol of the UK.
“It’s quite an iconic recognisable thing which they always seem to like at LEGO, and it’s something they have never done before. I think it ticked a lot of the boxes,” he added.
John, who has a background in graphic design, designed his set digitally on his computer.
He lives in Countesthorpe with wife Charlotte, and children Sophie and Thomas. All three are subtly referenced within the finished product, he tells Pukaar proudly.
“Inside the phone box are posters and signs which have my children’s initials printed on them. There is even a fictitious phone number on one of the posters where the numbers spell out the date of my wedding anniversary,” he explained.
“So these are some nice little easter eggs that the LEGO team let me include to make the set personal to me.
His love affair with LEGO started when he was growing up in the 80s.
He put his hobby to bed during his teenage years, however his interest was reignited once he became a father.
“My son is 8 and he’s really interested in LEGO at the minute. He’s been telling all his friends at school about me. When they see me at the school gates they all call me ‘the LEGO man!’ he revealed.
Explaining the enduring appeal of LEGO, John pointed out its relaxing and therapeutic benefits, plus its tactile nature.
“In this day and age where everything’ on screens and smartphones computers etc, it’s nice to have something real – something tactile when you’ve been on a computer all day,” he said.
“ I’ve always been a creative person and I just enjoy the idea that you can just open up a box of bits of plastic and basically”if you can imagine it, you can build it.
“I discovered that although years ago LEGO was always more of a child’s toy, it’s now got a massive adult following and they make a lot of these sets specifically for adults to buy,” he went on to explain.
As for whether he’ll be continuing with his quest to get more LEGO sets on the shelf, he said he was keen to keep on trying.
“When the dust has settled on this one, I will put another idea forward. It’s quite addictive when you get the votes coming in!
“Whether I’ll be lucky enough for lightening to strike twice I don’t know, but there’s always a chance!”
