Behind the Bricks of the Green Grocer - an interview with Jamie Berard

Interview by Joe Meno

The Green Grocer is the newest modular town building designed by Jamie Berard. I was able to speak to him about the design and behind the scenes work for the set.

Would you consider this the 2nd or 3rd building in the series?  I ask because Market Street was released as a Fan created set under LEGO Factory.

Green Grocer was supposed to be the second model in the LEGO Direct series, but with the introduction of Market Street trough LEGO Factory, it ended up becoming the third. When we first pitched the idea for the modular building concept,  I had 3 specific buildings in mind that I hoped to create.  The first was the Café Corner.  The second was the Green Grocer.  And the third idea, I can’t talk about because it will be released in 2009.

Considering that Fans have always been the main focus of the modular concept,  I was psyched when LEGO Factory invited Eric Brok in to develop a fan-built addition to the series.  I worked with Eric the whole week he was in Billund and then was responsible for taking his design and making sure it was buildable, on budget and differentiated from the Café Corner.  During the development process I contacted Eric regularly to inform him of progress to be sure that he had opportunities to offer additional suggestions and approve of necessary changes.  Eric was not only a talented builder, but also a great guy.  Market Street is a tribute to his incredible abilities and I’m honored to have it as part of the series.

How was a grocery story selected?  Were others considered?

When initially thinking of the concept for the second building, I knew that I wanted to include lots of food, a nice sand green or sand blue color scheme, a bay window and a fire escape.  A grocery seemed like a good foundation to get some of these ideas into a building.

Of course, Market Street has food.  But I felt the restrictions in Factory had limited how much food we could offer in that set.  Besides, Market Street is more of an outdoor bazaar and bakery while Green Grocer is more of a shop.

Continuing with the concept for the initial three buildings, I decided to go all out and grab as much fruit and veggies I could find in our basement.  I even threw in a couple of croissants to help the minifigs maintain their healthy diet.

As far as other building options, we ran a workshop just before the Café Corner was released where we invited a few fans in to come up with some ideas for future buildings.  There were lots of great suggestions that will be an excellent starting point for our plans after the 2009 model launch.

How were you able to do interiors on the GG, but not on Café Corner or Market Street? After seeing the internal excitement build up to the launch of the Café Corner, I was anxious to take the series to the next level by adding interiors and a full back scenario.   However, my marketing manager was a bit reluctant at first to put a lot of money into creating details that people won’t see on the box front.  Café Corner had yet to be a success and it was important to keep costs in check This explains a bit why Café Corner has no interior or back-side.  It was also important to keep costs down because the model was already at a high price point and was yet to be proven as a success in the market.  Market Street was also price-sensitive because we were hoping to make a lower-cost entry point into the series

For the Green Grocer, I challenged my marketing manager to allow me to try adding interiors and back details as an enhancement to an ultimate town building experience.  To me, there is something nice about discovering cool things that you may not have seen on the packaging.  The tricky part is making sure that what you show on the box is strong enough to excite people to purchase it in the first place.  Once they experience how much more they get, I’m hoping they will buy future models in the series anticipating more than was shown on the packaging.

One thing that surprised me is how much it costs to add interiors and back details!  The first floor of the Green Grocer almost doubled in cost after I ‘pimped it out.’  Needless to say, I had to be a bit more conservative with the other two floors in order to stay on budget.  Everyone wants more minifigures, more interiors, more size….but in the end, what price are they willing to pay for it?  Hopefully Green Grocer will be perceived as a good balance

Who thought of the lamps and what was the inspiration? If you could see my desk, you’d smile.  I’ve got tons of little things like lamps, handrails, patterns, roofing sections and weird curiosities.  I’m constantly building little details that I might be able to use for future models.  It’s just something that I do for fun. The lamps for the Green Grocer are loosely based on some reference material I found of old houses and buildings in the San Francisco area.   I love the sexton as a detailing element (as too I love most mini-fig accessories) so it seemed like a nice way to build a light.

How long did it take to design the set?  There are so many neat details that it took some time…

I actually worked on the Green Grocer and Town Plan at the same time in the first few months of 2007.  Both sets were completed before Easter.

Looking back, I actually pressed myself a little too hard to keep up with the ambitious schedule.  I ended up having to hand off Town Plan to Steen Sig Andersen and Jørn Thomsen for the last two weeks of development in order to finish up the Green Grocer.

Although I’m quite happy with the end product of both models, I wish I had just one more design loop on the Green Grocer to polish up a few spots that are still kinda bugging me.  I wanted to do something else over the 2nd floor windows and I’ve always thought the front door could use a little something like a flag or sign or banner.  Of course there are always things that could be done differently, but with the given restraints, it’s still a model I’m proud of.

Are there any particular parts of the model that you’d like to point out?

We now have the1x1, 1x2 (with groove), 1x3, 1x4 and 1x8 bricks in sand green!   Woo-Hoo!  Plus it’s cool to have finally introduced the 1x1 slope in gray.  I managed to squeeze 40 of them into the set!!

It’s also exciting to finally have a new window system to work with.  Of course, it’s not quite complete yet (hence the 1x2x3 train window used in the second and third floors), but it’s definitely a step ion the right direction.  Since we plan on continuing the modular line as long as fans keep buying them, it’s nice to have a windows platform that is systematic and expanding.

As far as parts of the model that I like, I’m pretty happy with the hammer and skeleton leg configuration on the roof.  Plus I like the way the balcony railings turned out.  The Fire escape is something I’ve wanted to build for quite a while now.  It offers so much potential for scenarios and play fun!  It’s also cool to see it grow as more mid floors are added. Although there are always lots of people who offer feedback during the development of any model, I was very lucky to have had some help from CREATOR team member Lami Phan.  He came up with the Boy Scout and helped design the black and white floor pattern in the Grocery as well as the carpet on the top floor.  During one of our workshops, Klaus Dobisch (a fellow AFOL) also made a very cool heater which I just had to use on the top floor.

What were some of the challenges you faced during the development of this project?

I think time was the greatest challenge on this project.  The schedule for Green Grocer was fairly ambitious.  I do love to build, but I think our team was a bit optimistic about how long it would take to build Town Plan and the Green Grocer.

Going forward, we’ve got a much better time schedule.  I already started the next modular building but am taking a break from it so that I can develop a couple of other Direct models.  There’s something really nice about stepping away from a project for a while.  When I return to the model, it is with a whole new set of eyes and experiences.  I’m convinced it makes the model stronger.

Other than time, I think it was a real challenge trying to create a middle building in the series.  The Café Corner is almost all frontage.  When you look at the box, there are no sides.  For the Green Grocer, however, the frontage is much more limited and the sides can stand out as very plain on the box shot.  The color sand green was also not preferred by marketing who felt it lacked a bit of energy and may be perceived as a bit boring.  In the end, the detailing all around (inside and out) helped bring the model to a level that everyone got excited about.

What are your thoughts on future buildings?  Can we expect more to come?

I’d like to see the modular concept continue for many more years.  There’s an endless amount of inspiration for future buildings, so it’s just a matter of making sure that sales keep going strong to show the company that adults like toys too!

I’ll soon be finished with the next building, so at the least we’ll have four in the series.  I’ve been fortunate to have worked on each of them so far, so I can’t help but feel like a proud parent.  Kudos to the LEGO Group for taking a chance and trying something new.  It’s definitely an exciting time to be working in LEGO Direct!

Many thanks to the LEGO Group  and Jamie for their help.

You can see my review of the set here.

You can order the set from the LEGO website here.