Lee Glickman – Casdon’s Lead Creative Designer – on finding inspiration outside toys

Welcome back, Lee Glickman… I meant to ask about your surname last time we spoke. It sounds German; do you know what it means?
I’ll be brutally honest, I don’t! I’ve been meaning to look into that but never got round to it!

But you’ve got to be, what? Late twenties? How is it you’ve got to that age and not looked it up?
First of all, thank you so much for that fantastic compliment. I’m on the verge of 40…

WHAT?
I’m 39 this year…

Well, scrap everything else; let’s talk about your skincare regimen!
It’s the lovely Blackpool air; the wind and salt!

Ha! It’s sandblasting the wrinkles away! Ha! Well, in that case I’ll find out what Glickman means and tell people down the bottom…
Amazing! I’m interested to find out – cheers, Deej!

Well, don’t thank me yet. Might mean something awful! I’m also interested in your creative process. You seem to have one of these brains that lets you do blue-sky ideas AND logical processing. How is that; how are you the Kwisatz Haderach? How are you the chosen one?
The chosen one! Wow. Well, first of all, thank you. That’s a massive compliment coming from you. I suppose it comes down to the exposure I’ve had across my career to thinking creatively and also commercially. From a very young age, I was always drawing and letting my creativity flow into all sorts of areas – and now I’m a product designer by trade!

I studied product design at university, but one thing that’s never changed is my creativity. It’s never been a problem for me to turn on that tap! Then, since being in the toy industry, I truly started to not only understand the wider world of manufacturing and operations but also work with some super-talented people from whom I absorb a great deal.

You mean habitually paying attention to what your colleagues do?
Sure. I’m learning and have learnt from a wide range of awesome people, and I tend to retain a wide range of information that I’ve been exposed to. I’m always asking questions, too: “Why have we done it this way?” or “How about we try this?” That way, I can try to understand a little more and also bring in a few nuggets of creative thinking…

I can go a little bananas sometimes, especially in blue-sky meetings! In fact, I’ve been told – especially in the early days of my career – to rein in the ‘crazy’ thinking… “Jesus Christ, Lee! That would cost a fortune to make!” So that’s occasionally been a problem in the early stages! Ha!

But as long as you do to rein it back in, I don’t think there’s a problem going bananas is there? It’s a question of applying brakes at the right time…
All joking aside, you’re right. You can go bananas to get the idea, then rein it in to get to a price point…That makes sense in as much as that you can always come down by de-specing, amending the scale, costing out certain elements, tweaking the play pattern and so on. You can’t necessarily go up, though; you can’t start with a really small idea and just keep bolting things on – It won’t make sense for the final product and play pattern! All that said, thinking commercially and becoming exposed to more managerial conversations over the years has allowed me to become more process driven…

So now I have a two-pronged aspect: I can go creatively nuts, but then take a step back and rein it in a little faster based on the knowledge I’ve gained. I’m not saying it’s perfect, but it’s certainly getting better with the awesome toys we are creating. Plus – at Casdon – Alex Reynolds has truly made me think differently with an eye on creative and also processes. He’s really streamlined process based on his knowledge and experiencing other roles. So I think it’s all about taking nuggets from other people and companies and using them to fuel who I am today. It’s been a fantastic process.

Brilliant. And in your experience, is there anything that you think kills creativity?
Oh, yes – big or small, I absolutely believe cost of a product versus expected retail price kills creativity. The US tariffs definitely aren’t helping right now. But on a less extraordinary scale, there’s always a challenge on product price and retail value. As soon as we say, “We’ve got an amazing idea! It’s going to be a £30 line; $40”, the feedback from retailers is, “The retailers will want it for £20!” To take that amount off the idea really can take away a lot of the fun. So in some companies, the idea either gets dropped, tweaked or executed poorly – not at Casdon, I hasten to add. Quality is everything here.

But then, I suppose that goes back to what you were saying earlier… You can scale it back. Do without some features to protect the core idea?
Yes, sometimes that’s the answer; to explore what our options are… How can we tweak it? Can we change the mechanism, remove some expensive components to something more cost efficient, maybe? All while keeping an eye on the play pattern. But that’s what sets you on the path to compromise, so yes… I think retail-cost expectations can kill creativity.

In terms of the opposite question, what do you do to stay creative?
I try to look at a multitude of different avenues – so not just toys. I do a tonne of research online of course, but I do love a store visit – not just toy shops! Even on the weekly grocery shop, I’m always looking around and seeing how wider industries execute work. I have a range of online magazines which I love a good scan over, whether that’s in the automotive industry – with concept cars, anything that’s new in packaging or branding, or anything attention grabbing and is a bit more out there. My favourite thing to do is let my mind wander with no restrictions – and question ‘what if…’ – I’m usually either on a walk or sat on my iPad sketching!

I’m loving this! This is a bit unfair because it puts you on the spot, but could you give me a specific example of that kind of thing?
Sure! I recently bought a very exciting collapsable and extendable bucket for the garden! It was part moulded in thermoplastic-rubber – but it folded flat, back on itself and back to normal. It just hit me as a bit bizarre. And I thought: ‘Hang on a minute. Could we use this for some sort of toy?’ So I seem to get creative stimulation from all sorts of avenues in life, and it gets stored away in the little vault in my head. And every now and again, I pull out a thought out and say, “Woah! That’s interesting! What about this?”

This is terrific! So you’re asking yourself, ‘How can this be toy? How could this be a game? How does this help?’ And you’re doing it habitually, which is the difference between geniuses and people like me!
Oh, you’re being too nice! No… It’s just how I tick, I think; it’s a quirk where nothing is safe – and stimulation for product development is everywhere.

Well, that’s what I’m saying! I’m not being nice! That, to me, is the secret of genius: to be able to do – effortlessly – something that others can’t do or have to try hard to do. That’s how I define it. So I’m giving it back to you…
I’ll take it. You’re too kind.

You’re too modest! What’s your background, Lee? I have it in my head that you came into the industry straight from university?
I did, yes. I came out of uni with a product design degree but right when there was a recession – when Woolworths was on the wobble. I went straight into HTI – which is quite a big toy company, and quite an old one; founded in 1952. This wasn’t just product design but graphic and packaging, so my world opened from then.

You know what?! I think Billy interviewed you when you were still there! I’ll put a link to that here. Where did you go next?
Well, I did two stints there! After the first one, I left the toy industry very briefly. I worked for a Christmas decoration company. It wasn’t the most energetic or creative of places, but I learned a lot in terms of presenting, one-off manufacture and going to customers with costings. I developed some skills I wouldn’t otherwise have. I stuck that out for eight or nine months before I went back to the toy industry at Sambro. I worked my way up there to Creative Manager for quite a number of years.

You were there at a good time?
I was there at a great time! Phenomenal. When I started there, turnover was around £30 million. When I left, it was up to 70-odd. All the big licenses came on board, something I was spearheading in terms of development. Then HTI called me back for a number of years before I found my way to Casdon.

Your spiritual home! Fantastic! By the way, while we’ve been talking, the elves have looked into the meaning of Glickman…
No way! What does it mean?

It’s a Yiddish name, derived from the word glick – which is German… It means luck! So Glickman means lucky man. Does that feel fitting?
Ha! Wow, no way?! I suppose with my career so far, I do feel lucky. Especially with the companies and people I’ve worked with. Ive had the privilege to work on some awesome products – own IP’s and global licences – which have led to some amazing experiences all over the world. So I suppose it is very fitting – cheers Deej!

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