{"id":486830,"date":"2026-05-15T23:46:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T23:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/486830\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T23:46:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T23:46:26","slug":"industrial-designer-and-concept-artist-christian-grajewski-on-exploring-new-frontiers-in-lego-interview-the-brothers-brick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/486830\/","title":{"rendered":"Industrial Designer and Concept Artist Christian Grajewski on exploring new frontiers in LEGO [Interview] – The Brothers Brick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christian Grajewski has spent a career imagining the future as both an industrial designer for automakers and as a concept artist for TV, movies, games, and for his own art books. Over the past year and a half, Christian has been bringing those visions to life in a new medium \u2013 LEGO! One of these \u2013 Exoplanet All-Terrain Research Vehicle \u201cThe Monkey\u201d<\/a> \u2013 is currently entered in the Bricklink Designer Program. It\u2019s quite a trajectory for someone who hadn\u2019t touched a LEGO set in over 30 years! We sat down with Christian to talk about his journey and the satisfaction of creating something personal with your own hands.<\/p>\n

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TBB<\/strong>: At Brothers Brick, we\u2019ve seen quite a few build inspired by concept art and industrial design. Much less common are builds like yours adapted from your own design work. What sparked your decision to turn your ideas into LEGO builds?<\/p>\n

Christian Grajewski<\/strong>: I do have a couple of reasons why. What gave me the \u201cinitial spark\u201d came from the German YouTube channel \u201cHeld der Steine<\/a>,\u201d which I accidentally watched on December 7th, 2024, while I was sick for a few weeks and lying bored on the sofa. After watching a couple of videos, I thought to myself, \u201cWould it actually be possible to build my own designs with LEGO bricks?\u201d<\/p>\n

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I basically decided in that moment that it is possible and contacted an old colleague and friend, Marian, the next day. I knew that he was still building LEGO sets and MOC\u2019s. From a conversation between us years ago, I knew, that it is apparently possible to buy single LEGO bricks now. That might sound strange, but I honestly haven\u2019t touched or built any brick models since I was 14, which was over 30 years ago in December of 2024! On top of that, my obsession with concept design (which basically took over almost all of my spare time) meant I had no idea what was happening in the LEGO\/ brick world.<\/p>\n

Marian gave me some links, including BrickVault and BrickLink. I was amazed by what is going on and what is now possible! This basically confirmed my decision to try building my own MOC\u2019s.<\/p>\n

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This was the initial spark, the other reason I started was AI and the felt change in my surroundings as a concept designer. I felt this would be a great thing to do, no computers involved, and definitely no AI at all. On top of that, I thought, \u201cHow cool would it be to have models built out of LEGO bricks from your own designs?\u201d So here we are now : )<\/p>\n

TBB:<\/strong> You mentioned 30 years of not building LEGO before your current builds. That\u2019s quite a \u201cdark age\u201d! Was LEGO a big part of your childhood? Do you remember your first set? During your dark age, did you follow the hobby as a spectator or was LEGO completely off your radar?<\/p>\n

CG<\/strong>: Yes, I guess I basically spent my first 10,000 hours as a child with LEGO, and I do still have a big box full of those old bricks, but I haven\u2019t touched them yet, as I described above. I don\u2019t remember my first set, but I remember having some LEGO Space sets, the yellow and black ones, and many smaller ones. I do remember my last LEGO set, though; it was the Technic briefcase set 8062 from 1994, a Christmas gift.<\/p>\n

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I also vividly remember being obsessed with using just the same colors when building my own things as a child. So my own builds, always looked very clean. Looking back at my past, those memories strongly remind me of my current self and designs. Because I am still doing the same thing, I\u2019m just using very few specific colors and simple shapes.<\/p>\n

I definitely have to have a look at those precious old bricks now!<\/p>\n

TBB<\/strong>: As you started building again as an adult, what was your process for refreshing those building skills? Did you start with building sets or jump right into building your creations?<\/p>\n

CG<\/strong>: What I did was doing some research on what is new in the LEGO world, so I went through the Bricklink library, which was\u2026 a lot. I knew I can\u2019t just start building my designs without any training. So I looked at the available LEGO models that would match my designs and bought a couple of sets (Star Wars Razor Crest UCS, Dune Ornithopter, Space Shuttle, Mars Exploration Rover, BlueBrixx Stargate Fighter Jet) After a week of building I started buying tons of Bricks on Bricklink. I basically just went completely nuts here!<\/p>\n

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I am very much aware that this is completely stupid, but this is just me. At that point, I didn\u2019t realize the amount of work ahead of me organising those thousands of bricks, which basically took me a month to complete. While organizing those bricks I watched a ton of YouTube videos on building techniques and finished the sets I bought. According to my pictures I started building my Hornet Design on January 11th.<\/p>\n

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TBB:<\/strong> Did you work with Studio or other digital tools to plan your builds? How did you figure out what parts you\u2019d need to achieve your vision?<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> No I did not use any digital tools to plan ahead or help me build the models. It\u2019s hard to explain, I built all the designs years ago in my 3D software to create those renderings for my book. So I know each and every design very well. I somehow compared the shapes in my head with all those bricks I saw and bought. After that I just started building my Hornet aircraft. Basically, like a child would do it. I started every design with the most crucial part. In the case of the Hornet it was the round cockpit, and for the ANT it was those huge Wheels and the see-through tail section.<\/p>\n

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This step was very important because those parts dictated the scale of my models. I started building my Hornet Design for about four days and then stopped until 20th of January, when I had some friends visiting for a week. I almost finished my Hornet LEGO model during that time and was surprised by how straightforward it was. Somehow all my problems were \u201cself solved\u201d due to the LEGO system itself. Especially all those modified bricks and plates are amazing; the things you can build with them are incredible.<\/p>\n

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After I built the Hornet I started my Boomer drone and made it way too big. So I decided to print a scaled top view to guide the size. I did this from then on for each design. I basically went with my gut feeling for each design and started building into the wild. I also solved many problems while walking my dog. When I am onto something, my brain can\u2019t stop working. I would say, each build took me about two weeks (14 days) of work, with 8-16 hours per day.<\/p>\n

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TBB:<\/strong> Prior to working on digital design, you were a metalworker. Does it feel good building with your hands like this again?<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> Yes it very much does feel great to build something real again and not just a digital model which only exists when having electricity. But I have to say during my time as an interior designer, many of my designs were built as physical, full-scale models as well. You have to sit in an interior in order to design it, you have to experience the space around you.<\/p>\n

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TBB:<\/strong> Compared to concept art, LEGO elements have a lot of constraints about what shapes and connections are possible. How was it adjusting to this way of building? Did you find it difficult to capture the curves that are so essential to your designs?<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> Honestly it doesn\u2019t feel constrained to me at all. I know that I cannot rebuild my designs one-to-one; they will look different anyway. Having constraints is fun, this fires up your creative brain to do real design work. For me, design is problem-solving, not making nice shapes. In my opinion, nice and simple shapes result from good problem-solving. I also love to work with great engineers because I can learn a lot from them. Engineering is perfect problem solving and, in my opinion, much more difficult than design. Saying all this, I think building my designs with LEGO felt \u201ceasy\u201d because they are in itself just simple shapes added together, just like LEGO bricks themselves. Another great thing I didn\u2019t expect was the added detailing LEGO bricks give my designs. They have a same but different character now.<\/p>\n

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TBB:<\/strong> Do you have a favorite build from your creations? Why that one?<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> I think it might be my ANT, because of it\u2019s size and the mixture of shapes and how they are coming together.<\/p>\n

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TBB:<\/strong> Your designs are all built from white, grey, and orange. This combination was also the basis for LEGO\u2019s Mars Mission line. Coincidence?<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> I honestly had to look it up, so it was a coincidence. I am using the color scheme for almost all of my designs, including in my book. It just looks good to me : )<\/p>\n

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TBB:<\/strong> In the previous chapter of your career, you were an industrial designer for some of the most esteemed automakers on the planet. Can you share a bit about what your role was?<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> I was an automotive interior designer in a satellite design studio that worked for all of the VW brands. I was designing concept interiors for all those brands (Lamborghini, Audi, VW, Porsche, Seat, Bugatti, Skoda, Bentley) and helping them find new ideas. Coming from the outside often makes it easier to design something because you have fewer restrictions. I did this for almost ten years before I decided to become a freelance designer towards the end of 2017.<\/p>\n

TBB:<\/strong> Sports and racing cars are a big part of LEGO\u2019s modern catalog. Have you seen any of the DNA of your work turned into LEGO sets? Are you interested in building LEGO car models?<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> Honestly, I am not a car fan or petrol head at all, I just love those beautiful shapes. But I saw the Batmobile and Batcycle from The Batman turned into LEGO sets, which I was part of the design team back in 2019.<\/p>\n

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TBB:<\/strong> Much of your recent work evokes science-fiction, but maybe imagining the future isn\u2019t fantasy in your line of work. What does the \u201cfuture\u201d mean to your work?<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> That is true. As a child I was always a Star Trek fan, I loved how smart people solved problems with words. But what I really loved was the positive vision for our future as humanity. The white bright simple designs are just fantastic. The USS Enterprise ncc-1701-d is still the best spaceship ever designed to me. So in short, \u201cFuture\u201d means hope to me. I try to create a hopeful future where I would love to life in with all of my creations.<\/p>\n

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TBB:<\/strong> Your LEGO models are based on designs in your book Explorer. Maybe you could introduce the book to our readers.<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> Explorer \u2013 Futuristic Vehicles for Uncharted Lands, is a dream come true for me. Because it is truly just me as a designer and how I see the world of shapes. Because in my job working for someone, you NEVER design something alone. You are always part of a small or huge team.<\/p>\n

Personally I never felt \u201csatisfied\u201d in my work, so I always kept on creating my own things after work. It was like going to a gym after you went to a gym. I guess it just wasn\u2019t the right exercise for me to feel satisfied in the end, even though I loved almost every minute working there. Especially the amazing people I got to know, could work and got friends with. All of them had an impact on who I am as a designer today.<\/p>\n

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So for EXPLORER I took a couple of years off and lived on my savings to learn a ton of new 3D software (basically with YouTube) to create what I had in mind. Design Studio Press published the book in April 2021. The book contains 15 of my designs on 160 pages rendered in realistic environments and simple studios. Each design comes with its original pen-on-paper sketches. It does have a story of course, but to be honest the designs are way more important : )<\/p>\n

TBB:<\/strong> Many of your concepts are named for and seemingly inspired by animals. How does nature tie into your approach to design?<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> Nature was always part of my childhood. Growing up on the countryside, I was basically outside almost every day. I have been amazed by dinosaurs since I can remember, and by all kinds of animals as well of course. I guess this stuck with me and always finds its way into my designs. Just one time on purpose, and that was when I designed my Cricket space ship helicopter.<\/p>\n

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TBB:<\/strong> In addition to your industrial designs, you\u2019ve also explored creature design. Do you think you\u2019ll try adapting any of those into LEGO?<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> Yes I do have some creature designs as well, and I thought about to build some of them. But I am still not sure yet if I can capture the elegance with LEGO bricks<\/p>\n

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TBB:<\/strong> Are you familiar with the Bio-Cup by chance? If not, you should look into it!<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> No I didn\u2019t, but I looked it up and it looks great! So I guess capturing the elegance of my creatures should work with LEGO.<\/p>\n

TBB:<\/strong> How do the LEGO models fit into your vision of inspiring vehicles of the future?<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> I am not sure if I can inspire the future with my LEGO models, though. But building them inspired me a ton as a creative person. It is a very refreshing thing, not to look at a screen for 8, 10, 12 or 16 hours a day. Specially seing what you are creating in reality is just amazing.<\/p>\n

TBB:<\/strong> You mentioned that more builds are to come. Can you share what you\u2019re working on next?<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> I have built five models so far: The Hornet, Boomer, ANT, Cricket and Monkey. I thought on building the Goose, M\u00e4ck and Swan designs from my book as well. But before that, I wanna create instructions for the first four designs as well and try to sell them. While building the Monkey for the BrickLink Designer Program I had to learn to build it in Studio.io and do a manuel as well. So I want to use that knowledge now.<\/p>\n

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TBB:<\/strong> Now that you\u2019re sharing your LEGO creations, you\u2019ve seen a lot of kudos from the community. Are there aspects of the hobby that you\u2019ve been curious about or have thought of participating in, like conventions or competitions?<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> Yes I built my Monkey Design for the BrickLink Designer Program. I talked to some people about conventions, it sounds nice but I am not sure if my designs are interesting or good enough for the general public. But I would definitely like to be on a convention. Let\u2019s see what the future brings.<\/p>\n

TBB:<\/strong> Your Monkey rover is currently entered into the voting for BLDP series 11. How did you decide this was the time, and how did you decide on that model? Did the BLDP goal change your approach to building?<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> I think, it was mid-February 26 when I really looked at the BLDP series, and understood what it was. At that point, I had already started my Monkey project. I read through all the guidelines and found out, that I can only use certain LEGO bricks with certain colors and that there is a maximum of 4000 bricks.<\/p>\n

I checked the availability of certain important bricks for the Hornet and Cricket, which are key to both designs; only the Monkey was doable with the Series 10 limitations. The Ant and Boomer have way to many bricks.<\/p>\n

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When the Series 11 brick list came out, I already had a finished physical model. While building it, I took many work-in-progress pictures to help me build it with Studio.io, without destroying it completely. The good thing was that I built the real model already in \u201csubmodels,\u201d which proved to be useful as I found out while building it digitally.<\/p>\n

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A big problem where the wheels, with it\u2019s almost 1000 single LEGO parts. I basically hit the 4,000-piece goal when I finished my first digital draft. But the design still lacked some \u201cdetail love\u201d, so I had to find a way to reduce my brick count. Another problem was that certain bricks were unavailable or not in the color I needed.<\/p>\n

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I didn\u2019t really care about the \u201cBLDP goal\u201d, I just wanted to make a great looking model. I am aware, that the BrickLink community loves sets with minifigures, but including them would have resulted in a smaller, worse-looking model to me. And in the end I am always of the opinion: \u201cDesign what YOU love, not what others love\u201d. I am doing that each day when working for a client, and I honestly enjoy that. But in my spare time, I want to create things I personally would love to have.<\/p>\n

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TBB:<\/strong> Are there builders in the community that you\u2019ve discovered who inspire you in the way you\u2019ve been inspired by concept artists like Syd Mead?<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> Yes, a fellow German, J\u00fcrgen Wittner. His builds are just stunning to me. The simplicity, choice of color, and elegance of his builds really resonate with me. On top of that, he is just super friendly and always helpful when answering my stupid questions.<\/p>\n

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TBB:<\/strong> We\u2019re living in a moment where a generative AI tools are making it possible for those with no design background to generate concept art from simple prompts. How is your field adapting to the sea change?<\/p>\n

CG:<\/strong> Yes this is definitely a BIG question and not easy to answer. Yes every \u201cchild\u201d can create \u201cart\u201d with AI, but they cannot explain what is good about the creation nor why. They can say it\u2019s \u201cgreat\u201d but there is no meaning behind it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like going to an amazing restaurant for the first time, while thinking McDonald\u2019s sells \u201cfood\u201d. You can say the food is great because the restaurant has a great reputation but you won\u2019t be able to explain why the food is great or how it\u2019s prepared.<\/p>\n

I for myself can explain why things look good and reproduce them myself. That is also the problem with AI \u201cpicture\u201d tools for me, I know what I want and it just takes hours to get something that is barely good. During that time I can produce more valuable things, and I don\u2019t have to press a \u201crefresh\u201d button over and over again. The more you know and the more you can do yourself, the more valuable you are in my opinion. On top of that, I don\u2019t need to spend a ton of extra money to be creative (AI tool costs), and I don\u2019t need electricity for being creative. A pen and some paper are enough for me.<\/p>\n

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Can I change other people\u2019s minds or their business mindset? No, I can\u2019t. Are companies using AI to create things faster and definitely not better, for most of the part, yes, but I can\u2019t change that either. The genie is out of the bottle. I can\u2019t predict the future, I can only hope that enough people are willing to learn things instead of just repeating what an AI has told them. Let\u2019s see what the future holds for us.<\/p>\n

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TBB<\/strong>: That\u2019s very inspirThank you so much for your time and for sharing your journey with us!<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christian Grajewski has spent a career imagining the future as both an industrial designer for automakers and as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[267],"tags":[365,362,363,364,212551,212552,153835,366,18,117,19,2810,17,6765],"class_list":{"0":"post-486830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-bricklink-designer-program","13":"tag-christian-grajewski","14":"tag-concept-art","15":"tag-design","16":"tag-eire","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-ie","19":"tag-interviews","20":"tag-ireland","21":"tag-science-fiction"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116581262736986120","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}