LEGO is changing everything… and nothing at all. The LEGO Group has announced it is removing the raised LEGO logo from all elements with studs. But don’t fret—the historic and vital branding isn’t going away completely. Rather than a raised logo, elements will feature a recessed LEGO logo molded into the studs.
Old raised logo on the left, new recessed logo on the right.
In The Groove
In their press release included below, LEGO says that the initiative is primarily based on sustainability efforts rather than cost-cutting factors.
The LEGO® Group Launches In The Groove™ Sustainability Initiative
BILLUND, Denmark — The LEGO® Group is proud to introduce In The Groove™, a new sustainability initiative designed to reduce plastic use without compromising the beloved LEGO® building experience. As part of its ongoing commitment to environmental responsibility, this effort will gradually replace the raised LEGO® logo on studs with a recessed version, resulting in a small but significant reduction in material use across billions of bricks produced annually.
The name In The Groove™ refers not only to the newly recessed stud logo but also to the LEGO Group’s ongoing commitment to staying “in the groove” when it comes to innovation and sustainability. With an estimated 36 billion LEGO® elements molded each year—or approximately 1,140 per second—even the smallest design improvements can have a large cumulative impact over time.
“This change reflects our long-standing dedication to improving our product and building a better planet,” said Björk Schoenwald, head of the Product Research and Novelty Knowledge Engineering Department at the LEGO Group. “We know that great design doesn’t just mean creativity and playability—it also means responsibility while honoring the past and looking to the future.”
Changes stemming from the LEGO® In The Groove™ initiative will be implemented gradually over the coming years. Due to the high cost and precision of creating LEGO® molds, the recessed logo will be introduced whenever a mould is newly created, replaced, or undergoes a significant update. As a result, common elements like bricks and plates will be among the first to feature the new recessed design, while less frequently produced parts may remain unchanged for some time.
LEGO® In The Groove™ aligns with the LEGO Group’s overarching Reduce – Reuse – Recycle sustainability framework:
Reduce: Recessed logos reduce material used per element, resulting in significant savings across billions of parts while reducing fossil fuel reliance.
Reuse: All elements remain fully compatible with LEGO® bricks from the past 65+ years, ensuring longevity and play value.
Recycle: The initiative complements other efforts from The LEGO® Group such as the transition to paper-based bags, smaller box sizes, and recycling programs like LEGO® RePlay™.
The LEGO Group believes that even the smallest changes can make a meaningful difference. LEGO® In The Groove™ will help create a future that’s not only fun to build, but also more sustainable for generations to come. This innovative approach promises a brighter, more sustainable future for both LEGO® fans and the planet alike.
LEGO’s New Grooves
Here at BrickNerd, we fully support LEGO’s sustainability improvements, but clearly these changes represent a much bigger impact than LEGO suggests. We had the opportunity to sit down with Björk Schoenwald from The LEGO Group, who spearheaded the new recessed logo elements, to see the new elements in person and clarify a few points.
BrickNerd: Thank you for speaking with us about the “In the Groove” initiative. Can you share how this idea came to be?
BJÖRK SCHOENWALD, LEGO Chief Operating and Production Officer
Schoenwald: LEGO is all about continuous improvements, both from a product perspective and a sustainability one. The idea to eliminate the raised logo actually came a few years ago from one of our engineering interns during a morning scrum as we were brainstorming ideas to reduce plastic consumption. We initially rejected the idea because the LEGO logo is such a vital and iconic part of the brick, but we explored other ways to achieve the same goal and the idea of a recessed logo made much more sense.
We also considered printing the logo on studs, but that would add significant cost and complexity to the manufacturing process and they would be subject to wear over time. We even experimented with overmoulding so the recessed logo could be a different color, but that would mean creating two new moulds for every existing one, which is cost-prohibitive—even for a company as successful as LEGO.
BrickNerd: Were there any considerations made about the function of the bricks with or without the logo?
Schoenwald: Yes, we’ve thoroughly tested the striated bricks. Excuse me, I mean the grooved bricks. “Striated” is the technical term we use—”groove” is the marketing term. Every product we’ve created over the last five years has passed verification tests that show no functional difference whether the logo is raised or recessed. In some cases, our set designers actually praised the change, and our Braille Bricks team said it would make reading the bricks less tiresome on the fingers. Here’s an example of the old raised and the new recessed bricks that you can take a photo of, if you like.
BrickNerd: Yes, that would be great. We have a decent macro lens on this cellphone.
BrickNerd: Getting back to the interview, when will the new grooved brick become available and incorporated into sets?
Schoenwald: They already are! The groove bricks have already been available for almost six months at LEGO House, produced by the moulding machine on site. When the machine was updated to paper packaging, we also updated the brick mould to the recessed version. You can also see that the recessed version of the studs is printed on the bags. Of the thousands of people who’ve come through and received their six bricks, we haven’t received a single comment about the recessed logo.
BrickNerd: I see we only have time for one last question. Aside from the red 2×4 bricks, how will the rest of the recessed stud elements make their way into sets?
Schoenwald: Practically, they will start to appear in sets mixed with raised stud elements by the end of the year as we slowly work our way through updating all the moulds. Just as some sets now have both paper and plastic bags, new sets will feature a mix of raised and recessed studs for a few years. Obviously the elements that are used more will get recessed logos faster. More obscure parts might take us a while though we will have to evaluate if it is worth the cost to keep the part active with a new mould or just retire it. We also looked into modifying and essentially filling in some of the existing moulds so we wouldn’t have to refresh everything, but the results of those trials fell short of our level of our tolerances.
Marketing also has some fun ideas to get the new elements out faster, like maybe picking a certain brick type like slopes and focusing on those all year, or choosing one theme and all their typical pieces get converted over, or even maybe doing giveaways or putting some in blind boxes similar to our Collectible Minifigures. We’ll see. You never know what marketing might cook up!
BrickNerd: Thank you for your time. We will follow up with your PR representative with any other questions.
The Hidden Benefits of Grooves
As alluded to in some of the LEGO set designers’ feedback, there are some notable benefits to having grooved bricks. Some of the most creative MOC builders will rejoice that they will never have to worry about complex collisions or LDU calculations with raised studs, especially since most LEGO design software doesn’t account for them. It also means that for purists, there is now a whole new realm of techniques that were previously only possible with Technic bricks or elements featuring hollow studs.
Yes, we are talking about “illegal builds.” After the implementation of grooved bricks, some of the illegal builds from Jamie Berard’s infamous presentation about Stressing the Elements will finally become legal!
We’re talking new SNOT (Studs Not On Top) techniques that innately avoid some of the most annoying and unexpected collisions that plague even the best designers. Interestingly, if these techniques appear in future LEGO products, they may not be backward compatible with older bricks, especially for builders using “vintage” elements.
It remains to be seen how BrickLink deals with the change. Will the new elements have the same number and be treated as mold variants, or will they be listed separately as new catalogue entries? Like we have written about before in several articles, mold updates to elements often change the functionality of those bricks. Recessed logo studs vs raised ones will face the same challenge.
On the other hand, the new and old configurations should be interchangeable for the majority of builders. Though it will be curious to see if builders and BrickLink sellers alike will sort the two versions together or separately.
Getty Groovy
There is no doubt that removing the raised LEGO logos on elements will save some plastic. We’ll hold off on calculating just how much material—and money—will be saved for another article, but we expect these small changes will have a sizeable impact. Especially when it comes to dedicated AFOL builders and collectors who make the most of every element.
Naturally, we still have a ton of questions. (We are BrickNerd, after all.) Did LEGO make these changes knowing the impact on building techniques? Were they created with sustainability in mind, or was that just a side effect of reducing the amount of plastic used in their products? Will the recessed logos be received with as warm a welcome as new grey? Will they be cheaper or more expensive on the secondary market?
Only time will tell how fans will truly respond to these subtle but significant changes. So keep an eye out for the new recessed logo bricks appearing in LEGO sets soon, and we will find out if these new grooves leave a lasting impression.
How will elements with the recessed logo impact your MOC building? Will you take advantage of formerly illegal SNOT techniques now they legal? How long did it take you to figure out this is an April Fools joke? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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