Artist Roy Scholten makes one thousand bird prints using LEGO bricks.

In 2018, Roy Scholten set himself the task to design and print fifty birds using LEGO bricks as the printing material. The final bird in the series came off the press at the start of 2024. From April 14, all fifty birds can be seen together for the first time in Grafisch Atelier Hilversum.

Letterpress is a printing technique that transfers ink from the raised parts of a printing form, such as lead type, to paper. The letters work like little stamps. Line up many, and you get words, sentences, text. LEGO letterpress using the so-called Hilversum Method combines the modern design language of LEGO bricks with a traditional printing process. A technique intended for printing text thus becomes suitable for printing images.

To master the visual possibilities of this method, Scholten designed fifty birds. The large variation in shape, color and pattern between the different species makes it a rewarding theme for exploring the possibilities of LEGO letterpress.

A number of rules ensure unity in the series: All birds can be found in the Netherlands. Each bird print is the same size, based on a 16 × 16 base plate. Within those dimensions, the bird is always depicted in its entirety.

The number of printing passes for a single finished print ranges from three to eleven. These passes are not only used to apply different colors. Partial overlaps of shapes printed using the same color result in new shapes. Each design is printed in an edition of twenty copies. Thus, the entire series consists of a thousand hand-printed designs.

Scholten has been a bird lover since childhood, and has been drawing them since he could hold a pencil. Every day, birds remind us of the richness of nature around us. Unfortunately, many species are in decline. All the more reason to once more take a good look and appreciate them.

The complete series of prints can be seen in Grafisch Atelier Hilversum from April 14 to May 26.
Grafisch Atelier Hilversum
Noorderweg 96b
1221AB Hilversum

A selection of bird prints is shown in Print & Play. The Art of LEGO Letterpress. A bi-lingual book that showcases ten years of printing with LEGO bricks.