Dezeen's chief content officer Benedict Hobson spoke to designer Camille Walala and the Lego Group about the importance of fostering creative skills from an early age at the launch event for new product Lego Dots.

Lego Dots is a decorative 2D tile concept from the Lego Group that aims to offer children "a creative canvas for self-expression". The range allows children to create patterned bracelets and home accessories, which can be decorated with a range of tiles in different colours and shapes.

The panel comprised Walala alongside Lego's senior vice president Lena Dixen and senior design manager Amy Corbett.

The panel explored the value of encouraging children to develop creative skills from an early age, how education can be improved by creative approaches, and why self-expression is important in childhood and adulthood.

The panellists also discussed how Lego Dots caters towards a different kind of creativity than the traditional Lego building bricks.

To celebrate the launch of the new product, Walala has created a public installation using the Lego Dots range in London's Coal Drops Yard.

Called House of Dots, the installation takes the form of a five-room house made from eight shipping containers. Walala has customised the walls, floors, rugs and furniture with Lego Dots in her distinctive colour-blocking style.

Walala is a London-based designer known for her large-scale interventions in public spaces that often feature bold colours and geometric patterns.

She recently installed colourful benches, planters and flags along a London street, and in 2018 covered a Brooklyn building in a colourful Memphis-style graphic.

Dixen has headed up business, product and marketing development for half of the Lego Groups's product portfolio since 2017.

Corbett joined the Lego Group in 2013 and now leads a team of designers to develop new products and concepts for the brand.

Dezeen hosts and livestreams talks and panel discussions from around the world.

Recent examples include a talk on the circular economy in architecture held at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven and a talk with speculative architect Liam Young about how drones are changing our cityscape.