Domino Designer

Lily Hevesh fell in love with dominoes when she was 9 years old. “My grandparents had the classic 28-pack,” she says. Hevesh would arrange the tiny rectangles in curved or straight lines. Then she would flick the first domino and watch the whole display come tumbling down. 

Hevesh collected her own dominoes as she got older. In 2009, she started posting online videos of her domino designs. Today, at age 20, Hevesh is a professional domino artist. She is paid to create spectacular domino setups for movies, TV shows, and events. Recently, she used more than 7,000 dominoes to build a design for pop star Katy Perry! 

In 2017, Hevesh set a Guinness World Record for the most dominoes toppled in a circular shape: 76,017. “It’s super exciting to see your idea come to life—and then knock it down,” she says.

Lily Hevesh was 9 years old when she fell in love with dominoes. “My grandparents had the classic 28-pack,” she says. Hevesh would line up the tiny rectangles. Then she would flick the first domino. She’d watch as they all came tumbling down. 

Hevesh started collecting her own dominoes. Then she began posting online videos of her domino displays. Today, Hevesh is 20 years old. She’s a professional domino artist. She’s paid to create amazing domino setups. She makes them for movies, TV shows, and events. Recently, she used more than 7,000 dominoes to build a design. It was for pop star Katy Perry! 

Hevesh set a Guinness World Record in 2017. It was for the most dominoes toppled in a circular shape. The total number was 76,017. “It’s super exciting to see your idea come to life,” she says. “And then knock it down!” 

Before she builds her domino displays. First, she thinks about the theme of the design. What does she want to communicate? Then she brainstorms colors, images, or words to include.

Next, Hevesh sketches out how she wants to arrange the dominoes. Sometimes she creates a grid that forms pictures, like emojis or logos, as it falls down. Other times, Hevesh constructs 3-D structures like domino towers or pyramids. 

When Hevesh figures out how many dominoes of each color she’ll need. Some creations require tens of thousands of dominoes. Instead of counting out each one by hand, she weighs them. That allows her to easily calculate whether she has enough of each type.

Hevesh tests each section of a display. She films the tests in slow motion. This helps her make corrections if something goes wrong. When each section works perfectly, she puts them all together.

Hevesh does a lot of planning before she builds her domino displays. First, she thinks about the theme behind the design. What is the main idea she wants to get across? Then she brainstorms the parts of the display. They include things like colors, images, or words.

Next, Hevesh draws the domino setup. Sometimes, she creates a grid. The dominoes form pictures as they fall down. The picture might be an emoji or logo. Other times, Hevesh builds 3-D structures. Those include domino towers and pyramids. 

Then Hevesh figures out how many dominoes she’ll need. She needs to know the exact number of each color. Some creations need tens of thousands of dominoes. She weighs them instead of counting them out by hand. It’s an easier way to learn whether she has enough of each type.

Hevesh tests each section of a display. She films the tests in slow motion. She fixes anything that goes wrong. She puts all the sections together once each works perfectly. 

As Hevesh builds, she has to be careful. Dominoes standing upright are full of potential energy, or stored energy. Just one wrong move and the energy converts to kinetic energy, the energy of motion. When a domino falls, it transfers energy to the domino in front of it. That domino transfers energy to the next. One by one, all the pieces fall down.

To keep that from happening as she builds, Hevesh leaves out a few dominoes here and there. If she knocks something over, these “safety gaps” keep the setup from crashing down. 

Hevesh gets nervous before the final run. “No matter how much I’ve planned, there are always things that surprise me,” she says. “Once the last domino has toppled, I can finally celebrate and sigh in relief.”

Hevesh has to be careful as she builds. Dominoes standing upright have potential energy. It’s stored energy. One wrong move, and a domino will tumble. It’s stored energy then changes to kinetic energy. It’s the energy of motion. A falling domino passes its energy to the domino in front of it. That domino passes its energy to the next one in line. That causes all the pieces to fall down, one after the other.

Hevesh leaves out a few dominoes here and there in her design. They act as “safety gaps.” She could accidentally knock something over while building. The spaces keep the whole setup from crashing down. 

Hevesh gets nervous before the final run. “No matter how much I’ve planned, there are always things that surprise me,” she says. “Once the last domino has toppled, I can finally celebrate and sigh in relief.”