This year, KCI Construction took the exciting step of becoming employee owned, complete with an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). Their marketing team was tasked with coming up with a fresh way to educate and excite their staff about this new development. They’d seen brick options at trade shows that caught their attention, so they scheduled a discovery call with Playwell Bricks to see what was possible.

“We’d like to have a construction set,” our KCI Construction contact told the team, explaining the different types of equipment and construction activities that could be included.

With their ESOP program, an employee will be fully vested after six years, so ideally, KCI wanted a set that could be built over those six years, “and every year at our annual meeting, everyone gets the next piece.”

Playwell Bricks designer Petrus Gartler got to work creating the set for KCI. The above photos, from left to right, show each year’s set, added on to the last, before finally reaching the full, 65-piece set on Year 6.

Because KCI wanted roughly 60 parts for the full, completed set, this provided Petrus with the unique challenge of designing an engaging set for each year with only 10 pieces available to him. While our designers are no strangers to working at smaller scales, this scale takes skillful attention to detail and form. When there is just a handful of pieces available to make a recognizable piece of equipment, there is no room for error. Team feedback, always welcome at Playwell Bricks, kept him on task and these sets are certainly an accomplishment.

With this set, KCI has a buildable, tangible means to help their team watch their ESOP grow to vestment, as well as a means to get them excited about this new venture. As KCI wrote to their team in the build instructions, “This is more than a model. It’s a reminder that every day you show up, you’re building something that belongs to you.”

If you’d like to commission a custom set for your brand, team, or milestone, Playwell Bricks specializes in custom design for corporate production. Our team of designers work with your branding and budget to help you brand well, build well, and gift well, with Playwell. Contact us and schedule your discovery call today.