JEFF FRIESEN MAKES LEGO WORLDS. YOU CAN TOO!

YOUR WORLD. YOUR WAY. IN STORES September 8!

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recommended by the smithsonian

“Innovative and Just Beautiful to look at”

available in multiple languages

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“A MASTERCLASS IN MICROSCALE”

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“This may just be the most beautiful LEGO book ever published”

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About Jeff Friesen

Jeff Friesen is an award-winning LEGO artist and professional photographer. He is the author of seven acclaimed LEGO books, including LEGO Micro Cities, The LEGO Castle Book, LEGO Space Projects, and The LEGO Engineer, which has been translated into multiple languages and recommended by the Smithsonian. He is also featured in LEGO Heroes, an official LEGO publication. Jeff was honoured when his microscale cities were awarded the Brothers Brick Creation of the Year, and he has been featured on official LEGO® accounts. Like any LEGO build, this all started with a pile of random pieces.

Jeff's LEGO journey began in the days when LEGO was mostly blocky and came in fewer colors than the rainbow. No bother, a 2×4 brick was the seed of worlds that Ozymandias would envy. In time childhood fell away, and Jeff wandered through the dark ages as a professional photographer and writer. Truth be told, it wasn't all bad. He collected some accolades, but there was always a missing piece. Then light arrived in the form of a daughter, who brought Jeff back to the bricks. Teaching her photography one day (using her own LEGO builds as subjects) he decided to add some of his own creations into the shots. He posted the results with some trepidation. They went viral.

The brief flash of internet fame was dizzying. His LEGO interpretations of Banksy's street art caught the attention of Banksy himself, or whoever runs his Instagram account, earning a repost that is sadly no longer there. But there was more to come. Jeff switched to architectural subjects, inspired by world-building from fact and fiction. His builds have earned The Brothers Brick LEGO Creation of the Year award and have been featured on official LEGO social channels, building a dedicated Instagram following of more than 35,000 fans.

As a photographer, Jeff brings the same precision to his camera work. His photography has earned the Communication Arts Award of Excellence, one of the most prestigious honours in the industry. These days he builds, takes pictures, writes, and tends to a hodgepodge of hobbies. His Sheepadoodle remains unimpressed by all of it.

Swipe to see how this monumental architecture is actually an assembly of LEGO bricks you can hold in your hand! You’ll find instructions for this futuristic take on Art Deco architecture in my new book, Building LEGO Worlds, which comes out in
Sea monsters need space, so I've expanded this viking village to a 32x32 base. Although smaller microscale builds look great on a screen, I'm building bigger with an eye on future exhibitions. Swipe to see a behind-the-scenes video, and you’l
I love how Art Deco architecture feels both historical and futuristic at the same time. You can't quite place what era you're in, so you can imagine your own time and place. It’s a style that values the extra effort of beauty and craftsmanship,

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Every image on this site is a photograph of an actual LEGO build. Look closely and you may even find a few misaligned bricks! Besides being a LEGO artist, I'm also a professional photographer.

  • The short answer is a long time. I find it difficult to iterate in Studio (LEGO's CAD design program), so all the 'sketching' of ideas is done with real bricks, some of which have to be ordered from far reaches of the globe. For that reason I'm usually working on more than one build at the same time. Photography of the finished builds adds another multi-stage process.

    There is also plenty of time when I stare at an unfinished build, hoping it will assemble itself.

  • My books are available anywhere books are sold, both online and in brick-and-mortar bookstores. If you'd like to order direct, my publisher No Starch Press at nostarch.com is a good place to start.

  • Search for “Jeff Friesen LEGO” in your country to see available translations. The LEGO Engineer is available in French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

  • My three pillars of inspiration are SimCity 2000, Monument Valley (the video game), and Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints, particularly the way artists like Hiroshige depicted cities and landscapes using parallel perspective. There are no vanishing lines and the viewer's eye is free to explore the whole scene at once.

    Beyond those three, I’m broadly influenced by world building in movies and video games. My goal is for viewers to have a sense of childlike exploration when looking at my cities. The main inspiration for this is Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, originally inspired by Shigeru Miyamoto exploring the Kyoto countryside as a child.

  • Though I'm inspired by historical architecture and fictional world-building, I always put my own spin on it rather than recreating something that already exists. That said, I'm open to commissions, including recreations of real places. Feel free to get in touch.