How LEGO Quietly Shaped My Career in Design and Teaching

I don’t have traditional art over my couch. If you walked into my home or office right now, you’d see LEGO. It’s on the shelves, in the foyer. Everywhere. It’s a very intentional choice, even if it looks a bit unusual for a 50-something’s home!

I wasn’t actually a hardcore LEGO kid growing up. That didn’t click until after college. I became fascinated with architecture and engineering (interestingly, after I graduated from Georgia Tech), and suddenly I saw these plastic bricks differently. It’s a modular design system. A thinking tool. And for me, it’s a visible timeline of my creative career.

The LEGO Architecture Studio set is probably the best example of what I mean. It consists of thousands of white and transparent pieces. No colors. No minifigures. By stripping away the “toy” aesthetic, you’re forced to focus on form, shadow, and scale. It’s essentially a physical 3D sketchbook. I often use it to iterate on ideas before I ever touch a tool like Blender or Maya.

I almost always have a build in progress. Sometimes I’ll just snap a few pieces together in the evening to unwind. Then during the holidays, I might finish an entire set in one afternoon. My family has a tradition where our holiday builds come out every December. It’s part of the decor, but it also keeps my creative muscles active. I suppose that sounds a bit “artsy,” but it’s the truth.

In my work as a designer and teacher, I use this “brick-first” mindset constantly. Building helps students strengthen spatial reasoning (the ability to mentally manipulate 3D shapes). It introduces engineering concepts like balance and proportion without it feeling like a lecture. Whether I’m working with students or engineers, the bricks provide a shared, tactile language for talking about systems and abstraction.

The broader lesson is that you should surround yourself with what genuinely sparks curiosity. Don’t worry too much about what “belongs” in a grown-up living room. My models aren’t just decorations. They are daily reminders of why I love design and why I teach. Simple, tactile tools are often the most powerful way to help people think.

If you use LEGO, or any other creative medium, in your professional work, I’d love to hear about it. I’m curious how it has shaped your professional journey.