Today we’d like to introduce you to Gregory LeBlanc.
Hi Gregory, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always been interested in Lego. From an early age, I was also incredibly interested in the Second World War. Eventually, I began to combine the two. In 2017, I really began building and designing with Lego again as an escape from a lot of personal stuff that was happening. I was incredibly interested in warships and focused on making them out of Lego. Eventually, I began to be confident enough to share my designs on a Lego builders’ gallery, where I was noticed by the owner of OmahaBricks, a company which sells instructions for military-themed Lego designs. That was my first foray into making money off of my designs. Eventually, I left OmahaBricks and joined BRICKmeetsDesign, BMD for short, which is another company similar to OmahaBricks. After freelancing several designs for one of the biggest military Lego companies (Brickmania), I decided to venture out on my own and start my own company. Which I’m still in the beginning stages of really getting off the ground.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Absolutely not in any way, shape, or form. I’d say the biggest struggle so far has been money. I’ve been trying to get everything started on a college budget, which just really isn’t all that feasible at the end of the day. Although the money that Brickmania paid for the two ships I did for them REALLY helped out. I’d say another big struggle has been the marketing part of it. I’m mostly on Instagram, and since they’ve switched over to pushing videos versus images, my growth and reach have really stagnated. I’m working on other ways of getting the word out, but nothing concrete yet. The last struggle has to be the lack of understanding of what goes into getting instructions and kits available. For one, the time it takes to design and make instructions is insane. For another, the input cost for the business is fairly high, and so people complain about the prices of the end result when there’s not really much we can do as kit makers to bring it down. We’re really at the mercy of whoever we get the bricks from on the price.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’d say I’m a mix of artists but also a businessman when it comes to this. At the end of the day, my goal is to be able to share my work with those who enjoy it and appreciate it. Honestly, I’m really proud of 99% of my designs, but if I had to choose, I’d say my larger-scale models. Those usually take at least 20 hours of work to get to a place where I’m happy with them, and way more than that if you include instructions, revisions, and test builds. I think what sets me apart the most is my focus on price and playability. There are a lot of people that focus on making a model look good. There’s nothing wrong with that, but at the end of the day to me, it’s a toy that should be played with. And the price also has to be considered; while it is expensive to get the pieces and sort them and all that at the end of the day, you do have to be affordable enough for people to buy them. That’s the fine balance that makes it interesting to me.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Just talk to people, really. And shoot your shot. When I talked to Brickmania about doing models for them, I didn’t really expect a yes. And I didn’t get a yes at first, either. A few weeks after I first approached Dan Siskind, the owner about it, he messaged me asking if I wanted to do the USS Arizona for them. Of course, I jumped on it amd also ended up doing the Bismarck.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.brickshipsdesigns.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brickshipsdesigns/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/brickshipsdesigns
