LEGO and Minion-inspired creatures take over the French street bollards with artist Le CyKlop!

French street artist Le CyKlop transforms city bollards into anthropomorphic, LEGO-inspired caricatures using yellow spray paint and his own sticker designs, dubbing the urban art Angry L’éGO.

Cities across the globe are home to unconventional local celebrities who turn sidewalks and building facades into blank public canvases where they can stamp their own artful print. In Paris, urban street artist Le CyKlop transforms the cobblestone avenues into LEGO-inspired city sets. Using his own sticker designs, Le CyKlop spray paints the tips of street bollards in yellow, finishing them off with anthropomorphic stickers that make each bollard look like one-eyed LEGO characters, dubbing the public art Angry L’éGO.

Beginning in 2014, Le CyKlop, a French street artist, has transformed bollards into LEGO figures throughout France. Le CyKlop has brought LEGO-inspired street art to different communes like Pantin, Colombes, and Montreuil.

After first picking out the bollards that he thinks could use some bright yellow makeup, Le CyKlop spray paints them so it looks like they’ve been turned upside down and dipped in yellow paint. Then, Le CyKlop pops some stickers onto the bollards, giving each one a distinct cyclops-inspired facial expression ranging from happiness to mischievous, and from fear to anger.

Le CyKlop found inspiration for his urban art through Greek mythology and the iconic building blocks brand LEGO. Describing his spray paint street art, Le CyKlop notes, “In my work, I try to break free from conventional supports such as walls or canvas, to invest in the objects. By putting an eye on them, I try to make them come alive, to give them a soul and to give birth to a form of fantasy.”

Designer: Le CyKlop

This robotic arm uses a trick from the Pixar playbook to appear ‘friendly’

There’s a brilliant study that outlines how the west and the east feel about robots in day-to-day lives. There’s a sense of awe and appreciation for robots in the east, while in the west, robots are feared because of the threats they pose. These two impressions are directly connected to culture – while Terminator, Skynet, and Black Mirror set an inherent fear of robots into the hearts of westerners, Transformers, Astro Boy, and other pop-cult references made robots feel more awe-inspiring and appealing to the eastern hemisphere.

However, with the rising probability that tech will end up making its way into our lives, designer Joonhyuk Hong believes the best way to promote human + robot coexistence is to make robots seem friendly. Hong uses a trick that self-driving cars have been using from the get-go to appear less threatening. He proposes an anthropomorphic element to the robotic arm to make it more interactive and ‘cute’, allowing it to be perceived less as a threat and more as an aide… something Pixar used to make Wall-E and EVE (and even Baymax) appear more friendly too.

The Emotional Collaborative Robot Concept is a multifunctional robotic arm with a display that acts as the robot’s face. The use of rounded forms and the cute avatar makes the robot look more amicable and less intimidating. The robotic arm’s versatile design allows it to assist humans in multiple tasks, from making your coffee to assisting you with tools in a workshop.

Designer: Joonhyuk Hong