Former LEGO designer reveals why he left the company

A former LEGO designer has revealed his reasons for leaving behind the brick for other pursuits, including setting up his own YouTube channel.

James May announced his departure from the LEGO Group – where he worked as a designer for five years, across themes including Creator 3-in-1, Friends, Icons and Ideas – earlier this month. At the same time, he launched a YouTube channel offering behind-the-scenes insights into the sets he’s worked on, starting with LEGO Animal Crossing set 77047 Bunnie’s Outdoor Activities.

What he didn’t go into at the time was exactly why he decided to leave behind what many would imagine to be a dream job. But May has now shared a few more details on the reasons behind his pivot away from the LEGO Group – and what else he has planned beyond his YouTube channel, which currently has two videos, five shorts and 768 subscribers.

“I have been looking for a career change that uses more of my design background and is [in] a smaller company,” May told Brickset. “It was hard to leave LEGO Design behind me, but it was better to end on a high early than wait until I have forgotten everything from university and all I would know is how to stack LEGO bricks.

“Right now I am working with a UK-based educational toy company, so I’m still making toys, but just for schools now. I am doing a lot more actual design work, and it lets me keep LEGO as a hobby.”

May also explained that his YouTube channel is something of a side project at the moment, so he doesn’t have everything riding on the success of his videos. Instead, it was born out of his own interest in social media, which he says has ‘grown over the years’ – partly as a result of his time at the LEGO Group.

“This is something I have wanted to do for a while,” he added. “Myself and a few other designers would mess about filming test stuff to pitch to the social media team that didn’t really go anywhere… But now I have left the LEGO Group, I can publish content like this and even if it doesn’t take off, it will be a nice project to document my journey through LEGO Design.”

With five years of experience under his belt, May also has a top tip for budding LEGO designers hoping to join the collective in Billund: make sure you work well in a team.

“Everything you do in LEGO Design is working with other people like graphic designers, element designers, [and] building instruction writers,” he said. “Being a fun person to work with for all these people will get you further than raw building skills.”

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