Making Minimalism a Big Deal
/There’s an art to picking the perfect LEGO element for a model. The latest installment of Iron Forge –the offspring of the infamous Iron Builder competition – wrapped up last weekend, ending a month-long lesson in exactly that. There is skill involved along with knowledge of the vast variety of elements to choose from—but frankly, that is the easy part. It is only when you put that knowledge into context, make use of every crevice and detail, and consider presentation, that a LEGO element can then transcend from its original purpose to become something entirely different and more beautiful.
One of the Iron Forge contestants that consistently impressed both spectators and judges is Dan Ko (Flickr / Instagram), a graphic designer from Bulgaria. His background is immediately noticeable when you look at his intricately crafted creations that manage to tell stories with just a handful of elements – it is minimalism at its best!
One of the highest-scoring submissions in the first round of Iron Forge, this piece titled ’Sunsets‘ is a terrific example of context and spatial awareness. The disarmed minifigure torso – the seed part of this round that contestants had to incorporate into their MOCs – turns into a mighty beast of metal, a breathing regulator transforms into its treads, and the minimalist usage of parts easily transports us into a galaxy far, far away. Suddenly we’re on Tatooine where a Sandcrawler struggles through the desert, with the twin suns (ingeniously used 1x2 Technic bricks) watching over it. It’s the angle that sells the illusion and that transforms the tiny element into something much bigger.
Round 2 of Iron Forge called for bananas to be used – and who’d have thought that they’d find a home in the neck of a hungry vulture? Perched on top of a guitar, overseeing the dusty (and inverted) baseplate plains, Dan’s ‘A day in the Forge’ is a perfect example of masterful storytelling. It also makes great use of the rules of visual design, with the white sun pulling your focus to the leftovers of a poor LEGO logo that the vulture is feasting on. A small stack of green in the distance adds needed contrast to the otherwise tone-in-tone image, and one is somehow expecting to hear a man with a harmonica playing in the distance. The model’s deliberate perspective makes it work so well—again with only a handful of parts—and it’s great to see someone frame things so masterfully.
For the final round of Iron Forge, Dan then served up a full menu of different and wonderful ideas. His top-down shot of a birthday cake, though, is what I kept going back to. Something there is mesmerizing in its beautiful simplicity. A total of 23 elements and a perfect camera angle is all that Dan needed to make the seed part shine. This round featured the well-known flag trapezoid flag, and I just love how Dan reduced it to its essence and used it in such a graphic way. Oh, and that bow tie holding the napkin together on the left? Ingenious.
To me, these little creations deserve just as much (if not more) praise as massive room-filling ones. MOCs like Dan’s make you appreciate the little elements they are made from and move the needle of what LEGO can be. They show that sometimes the simplest of pieces can be used for a grand purpose. I for one can’t wait for what he builds next!
What are some other examples of minimalism in LEGO that you have seen executed well? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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