When Ole Kirk Christiansen founded his workshop in Billund, Denmark in 1932 He made wooden furniture and toys. His business was not profitable and he struggled during the early 1930s. In 1934, he decided to focus on toys, and changed the name to LEGO. It’s an abbreviation of «leg godt» which is the Danish word meaning «play well».
In the 1960s, the company began to expand to other Nordic countries. The company also invented a smaller brick that was suitable for smaller hands, and named it DUPLO after the Latin word duplex (two-fold). This enabled children of all ages to build more intricate models.
In the 1970s Lego began to introduce new features that made its products stand out from the competition. They added different faces to the miniature figures. This made the characters appear more real and allowed them to display different facial expressions and emotions. The Lego Group also added wheels to its bricks, which opened the possibility of building vehicles and other machines that move.
The next big step was to introduce dedicated themes systems within the systems that allowed customers to create a specific environment or situation. This allowed the company to increase its brand’s recognition and also helped them reach an audience that was younger. Additionally the company expanded its production by opening factories in South Korea, Malaysia, and Brazil.