The Original Lego Brick Patent (Filed 1958) by Ole Kirk Christiansen



THe originalpatent for the lego brick by Ole Kirk Christiansen

Came across this: The Original Lego Brick Patent (Filed 1958), by Godfred Kirk Christiansen, earlier this morning over on Khooll.com, and it was certainly an intriguing find to start off this Monday morning.

A little history on the Lego Brick Patent:

You’ll notice on the top of the patent, that the name is stated as G. K . Christiansen, yet the company was initially started by a certain Ole Kirk Christian.

He was a Danish carpenter, who during an economic depression, and almost going bankrupt, started making these wonderful wooden toys.

Ole started selling them from his workshop, and these wooden toys, more specifically his company, eventually received a name: LEGO, and become the LEGO Group.

The reason why the Lego Brick Patent is in Ole’s third son’s name, Godfred Kirk Christiansen, is that Ole passed away at the age of 66, and Godtfred took over the business, and subsequently filed for the LEGO patent in 1958.

What I didn’t know was that LEGO is formed from Danish words: :“leg godt” meaning “play well”. Lego also translates into Latin as “I put together”.

Now, if only other companies would put as much thought into their brand names as Ole Kirk Christian had done. 

See also: Lego Brands – Famous Logos in Lego Style by Kamil Piatkowski

Lego Logo as Lego brands

The Pure Storage Lego Logo

Whilst I’m talking LEGO, I may as well mention that one of my most prized logo and and brand identity projects, Pure Storage, had one of it’s it’s Flash Arrays, and logo, made entirely out of lego.

Now that was so so cool to see.

Pure Storage Lego Logo