The new frontier of pop art at home is called Mosaic Maker. Just landed in Italy, it is an experience that can be found for now only in the LEGO Store in Florencejust inaugurated.
In practice, it allows you to create an image in bricks with an ad hoc set e Vanity Fair tried it in preview.
The set is the booth, the photo booth used for passport photos and the mechanism is very similar. But with a novelty: until now, in fact, it was possible to pose for a live shot and turn it into a portrait. Now, however, you can use any image from your smartphone to get the souvenir e the perfect gift in 4500 LEGO bricks. The cost? 119.99 euros.
The operation takes a quarter of an hour about and takes place in two ways. Either you sit comfortably on the seat, wait for the flash and choose your favorite from various shots or upload an already taken photo (scanning the QR code next to the booth) to transform it into an image of bricks, adjusting colors, backgrounds, brightness and contrast with a simple click.
In a few minutes the booth provides a blow-up of the shot, as an instruction booklet to place the bricks in the right order and a Mosaic box to create this pop art work. A detail not to be underestimated: if you get tired of this photo, you can always upload another shot on the website, turn it into LEGO and start over, using the same set.
Marco Capone, General manager of LEGO Italy, and Rossana Mastrosimini, Channel director of the LEGO certificate store West Europe tell the story, and anticipate the other news to come, after the launch of the LEGO Water Park in Gardaland last year and the arrival on the market of the first VESPA set in the history of the two brands.
Why did the decision to inaugurate the Mosaic Maker in Italy fall on Florence?
Marco Capone: «Florence is the city of art and culture par excellence, a concept that goes perfectly with this customization experience offered by LEGO. At the center remains the desire to build something as you wish, in addition to the growth of the path of inclusion of children and adults “.
Rossana Mastrosimini: “The Mosaic Maker is a brick-sized souvenir, already present in some of the 800 LEGO stores around the world and finally also in Italy, after a couple of years of planning, to develop creativity in the playful experience”.
How has the Mosaic Maker experience evolved?
Rossana Mastrosimini: «The idea was mainly individual, but today in the various stores where it is present it is very popular as an experience as a couple or with your own puppy. An online booking system will soon be available for the store in Florence as well ».
What does the future of LEGO hold in Italy? Another theme park? A new store?
Marco Capone: «There is nothing concrete about the possibility of a new park in Italy but soon – by 2022 – the store in Naples, number 23 in the Peninsula, will open with a new personalized experience, as per tradition. Among the new appointments, however, the collaboration of City Space with the first Italian astronaut in space, Franco Malerba. It is a tour that starts in Tuscany and continues with six stops throughout the territory. And the various partnerships continue, such as the one with Vespa, or with sets dedicated to cult film sagas, from Harry Potter to The Batman, beloved places like Disneyland Paris (some sets reproduce the castles in the various parks and this year the French one turns 30, ed.) and all the other passions, whether they are travel or botany. In June, then, the celebrations for the 90th anniversary of the brand start ».
And guests are increasingly protagonists, right?
Rossana Mastrosimini: «Entertainment ranges from physical to digital form, combining fun with an immersive and personal experience because LEGO wants to be close to everyone. I am pleased to see that the world of bricks, for example, is also increasingly passionate for girls and I hope to be able to involve schools soon too ».
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48 hours in Florence
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The booth
The creative process begins in this booth, just like those of passport photos
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Work in progress
While the photo is being processed, the screen explains the various steps of the Mosaic Maker
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Author shots
Here’s how a photo becomes a masterpiece
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Creativity is underway
One of the walls of the store dedicated to the Mosaic Maker
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Welcome to Florence
Some pictures of the store opening
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Florentine glimpses
One of the rooms of the LEGO store in Florence
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Brick Challenges
The thematic areas of the Florentine store
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Florence brick by brick
The Florentine monuments rebuilt to measure of brick
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The General Manager of LEGO Italy
Marco Capone, General Manager of LEGO Italy
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Rossana Mastrosimini
Rossana Mastrosimini, Channel director LEGO certified store West Europe
Source: Vanity Fair