Tak jedna smutnejšia správa zpred pár dní, zomrel dlhoročný dizajnér Erling Thue Dideriksen tvorca erling-headlight-... bricku čo bol prvý oficiálny SNOT diel.
https://www.brothers-brick.com/2023/03/06/erling-dideriksen-designer-of-the-lego-headlight-brick-has-passed-on-news/A niečo k tomu z knihy Secret life of LEGO bricks
A brick to light the way
By the time minifigures were released, Erling Didriksen was already
a seasoned employee, having designed multiple LEGO models
through the years. When it was decided to create LEGO Town, Erling
was asked to lead the small team of four to five designers tasked
with developing sets for the new flagship product line. Several years
earlier, during the mid 1970s, he had been involved with a collection
known as Hobby Sets. Intended to compete with glued hobby model
kits, this collection consisted of antique cars, motorcycles, a train,
and, in their final outing, the USS Constitution, which clocked in at
just under a thousand pieces, making it the largest LEGO set to
date.
Headlights on these vehicles had been constructed out of
components that were by this time practically antiques themselves,
specifically old windows. Passable on vintage car models, Erling
recognised that these would not fit in within the new world of LEGO
Town. A solution was not ready for the theme’s 1978 debut so, for
the first two years, vehicles that were big enough included basic
bricks printed with a grille and headlights in silver or black, while
smaller ones went entirely without any sort of detail on their fronts.
Behind the scenes, Erling worked diligently to craft a piece that was
unlike anything produced before.
Initially envisioning a specialised element that would depict a
headlight realistically, he created prototypes by fusing a 1×1 brick
with various glass-like protrusions. Placing a pair of these special
parts on a vehicle’s front and back simulated realistic-looking
headlights. Seeking wider usability, Erling split his concept element
into its two distinct components. Rather than a permanently attached
glass-effect bulb, he created an independent, circular, single stud
plate called a 1×1 round. The piece which emerged from this effort is
known throughout the fan community as a ‘headlight brick’. Within
the LEGO Group it is named for its creator: the Erling brick. This
piece has become one of the most universally used parts in the
entire element portfolio, having been included in over 5,000 sets to
date.
Having sorted that part of the task, Erling developed a modified
1×1 brick which had a hollow stud protruding from its side, onto
which the new 1×1 round could be placed. Simple in concept, the
small piece proved remarkably complicated, requiring a surprising
number of design decisions. As this was the first time a stud had
protruded in any direction besides straight up, there were no rules or
precedent for the type of construction such an arrangement could
facilitate. Instead, Erling and his team had to try and imagine all the
various uses such a brick might be pressed into.
Their first question was where the sideways stud should be
situated. Placing it directly in the middle of the 1×1 brick’s face, by
far the most aesthetically pleasing choice, was rife with issues. First,
it meant the stud’s centre would be at a height of exactly three
sections. While that may not seem problematic intuitively, Erling had
enough foresight to see a major issue stemming from the fact that
bricks are six sections tall but only five sections wide. Any brick
attached sideways at a height of three sections would not be flush
with either the top or the bottom of Erling’s proposed element,
leaving an unsightly, and out of LEGO® System, gap of half a
section. Accordingly, he elected to slide the sideways stud up,
locating it at what would seem an odd three-and-a-half sections from
the bottom, if you didn’t know the rationale. Doing it that way meant
an attached brick’s edge lined up with the top of Erling’s element,
making it much more useful. Designers who developed what would
later become known as LEGO® Technic bricks had placed the
centres of their holes for snaps in the same location, so it is highly
likely Erling was influenced by their earlier work. However, that
brought up another challenge.
