This is the first of five posts today about the 2008 LEGO Ambassadors nomination process.
In order to keep you better informed, we at The Brothers Brick will be bringing you brief biographies of the possible nominees for the Lego Ambassador representing our community. We will posting these as we receive the necessary information. The order is irrelevant. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Regardless of who is eventually chosen, the nominees will have to submit at least three testimonials from members of their community. In case you have forgotten, this means you! If you wish to write a testimonial regarding one of the possible nominees, please do so, as a comment, in the post under their name. Thank you for your support!
Possible Nominee: Nannan Zhang
As the newest brother to the blog, Nannan has already shown his passion for blogging with over 230 posts in the past six months. He scouts the LEGO communities daily to highlight the most recent noteworthy creations and important news. Dubbed by Andrew Becraft as having the “fastest fingers on the interwebs,” Nannan has shown commitment and dedication throughout the past months to recognizing the best LEGO works and news around.
Nannan is also recognized as a proficient builder, who contributes to the building community with his own unique style and creations. He frequents the communities of Builders Lounge, Classic-Space, FBTB, Flickr, MOCpages, and is also an active seller on Bricklink. Nannan’s ubiquity of presence and prolific building has earned him recognition in contests, other blogs, the BrickJournal magazine, and most recently in a two-page feature in the Official Xbox Magazine, which circulates well over 400,000 copies per issue.
A passionate LEGO enthusiast, Nannan looks forward to the opportunity to become a LEGO Ambassador. He is 19 years old and attends college in St. Louis, Missouri.
Nannan has inspired me to return to the brick after not building for several years. His creations illustrate an imagination that will be exciting to follow for years to come.
Either he should be an ambassador, or LEGO should thank him for getting me to spend so much dough over the past three years!
Christopher Bellerose
I never imagined I was recruiting the “fastest fingers on the interwebs” when I asked Nannan to join The Brothers Brick as a contributor, just six months ago! Since November, taken to LEGO blogging like an AFOL to Pick-a-Brick.
Nannan’s own LEGO creations have earned him features in BrickJournal and the Official Xbox Magazine (and he was a regular here on The Brothers Brick long before joining). Perhaps LEGO won’t be releasing a surrealist or Black Fantasy set anytime soon, but Nannan’s unique perspective and his skill with unusual building techniques would be enormous assets to the LEGO Ambassador program.
But Nannan isn’t just a prolific builder and blogger. Active in more online LEGO communities than I can list, he scours the Web for truly the best creations featured on The Brothers Brick, often leading to highlights on non-LEGO blogs like Gizmodo, Neatorama, and Boing Boing Gadgets — increasing exposure for the LEGO fan community and perhaps recruiting a few new LEGO fans along the way.
The fact that Nannan has been nominated from not one but four LEGO fan communities speaks volumes to the respect he has earned from his fellow fans, both as a builder and as a community leader. Nannan Zhang has my full support as a nominee representing The Brothers Brick.
Nannan has made a difinitive mark across the oniline community for both his unique style of self expression through his hobby and the broadness of his online presence. Beyond being just a distinguished builder Nannan has forged his own path of artistic discovery using the LEGO product as his medium. He has become reknown for his surealistic creations, most especially as the progenitor of the popular Black Fantasy fan-theme.
Nannan is the most visable and consistant member of the Builders Lounge staff, he is a capable administrator and has become an invaluable asset to the workings of the Lounge as a whole. Nannan takes a keen interest in the creations of others and is an active contributer of advice on many sites such as Flickr, MOCpages & Classic Space Foums. He is also a regular contributor to the popular The Brothers Brick blog, showcasing creations from across the broader community.
Nannan is a positive contributor to the community as a whole, his broad involvement with the AFOL community would make him an excellent choice for LEGO Ambassador.
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Nannan has become one of the most active and visible members of the online AFOL community. His builds display a depth of creativity, ranging from his well-known organically shaped “Black Fantasy” theme, to architecturally inspired spacecraft, to surreal art pieces. One consistent aspect of his building is an innate understanding of the effect color (or lack thereof) has on the model. Nannan is known for his bleak grey models (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nannanz/1131391033/), but has also shown an outstanding ability to break into bright colors in dazzling fashion (a la: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nannanz/2444496938/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/nannanz/2298147323). Nannan also has excellent photography and presentation skills, giving everything he does a professional appearance.
Nannan’s influence does not end with his MOCs, of course. He is possibly the most prolific blogger on the web’s largest LEGO blog, The Brothers Brick, and some of his posts have been referenced by the likes of Gizmodo, Neatorama, and other “mainstream” blogs. His voice is also heard across many of the myriad LEGO online forums such as Builders Lounge (where he is an admin and maintains much of the news section) and Classic-Space (where he recently hosted a highly successful contest).
I have built a good online rapport with Nannan in a relatively short time. My interactions with him have shown him to be a deep-thinking individual with a good sense of humor (including over his own darkly-themed MOCs) and a good capacity for working with highly-skilled and novice builders alike. Given his ability to reach nearly the entire online LEGO community and his great understanding of the brick, I believe Nannan would make an outstanding ambassador.