The exhibition highlights the relationship between LEGO® bricks and typography through letterpress printing, exploring key questions in design pedagogy through a hands-on approach. It focuses on systematic thinking and collaborative practice in typographic design.

Born from a series of classroom assignments at the University of Illinois Chicago’s School of Design, this research project evolved from a simple letterform design task into an international collaborative endeavor, bringing together the work of students, established designers, artists, and printmakers. It resulted in a letterpress printed alphabet, designed collectively by people from all over the world, and produced at the school’s print lab.

The exhibition displays both the original LEGO® letterform constructions and their letterpress-printed counterparts, produced through an intensive eight-month process involving over 8,000 bricks and more than 27,000 hand-operated passes. These elements initiate the conversations between the analog and the digital, between play and craft, between teaching and learning.

This exhibition features original work by: Alex Domasik, Amogh Parajuli, Anagha Deshmukh, Andrea Zaccuri, Austin Watson, Craig Ward, Dafi Kühne, Daniel Fain, Dina Benbrahim, Elena Franck, Emma Dwyer, Eric Von Haynes, Eunice Chiong, Fabian Harb, Fabiola Mejía, Gannon Novak, Grace Luxton, Grace Spee, Hailee Talbot, Hala Al-Ani, Henrique Nardi, Hyein Chung, Izze Norman, J. Dakota Brown, Jarin Moriguchi, Jennifer Wandro, João Guedes, Joe Brinckwirth, Joey Nottoli, José Dias, Josh Cook, Karin Malpeso, Katharine Wolff, Kelsey Elder, Lauren Covey, Layne Thue-Bludworth, Leo Vicenti, Liz Garst, Malcolm Thompson, Marcia Lausen, Mario Rizzotti, Michelle Hernandez, Nabil Nasr, Nahid Yahyaee, Naz Naddaf, Nuno Coelho, Oluwaseyi Adeleke, Otto Paim, Paul Hardman, Philip Burton, Promphan Suksumek, Quentin Bu, Raeann Van Zee, Raven Mo, Robert Zolna, Sharon Oiga, Simon Charwey, Sina Niemeier, Sonia Malpeso, Steve Garst, Tanner Woodford, Ted Davis, Viviana Favela, Wayne Thompson, Zixuan Chen, Ziyu Wang.

To know more, watch a one minute video about the project (©UIC by Rob Mitchum and Martin Hernandez): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqqD8GKvtlQ, and the process documentation publication (open source): https://pedroneves.info/a2z/. Project published and produced by Amira Hegazy, assisted by Shannon K. Morrissey.