San Francisco, CA, June 18, 2014—LEGO is enjoying an unprecedented renaissance that began well before the release of The LEGO Movie. For over a decade, LEGO artists like Nathan Sawaya and Mike Doyle have been creating jaw-dropping, museum-quality artwork by carefully piecing together those plastic bricks that we all grew up with. Their work seems truly magical. But even magicians sometimes share their secrets.

In The Art Of LEGO Design (No Starch Press, $24.95, 288 pp., July 2014, ISBN 9781593275532, 4C throughout), LEGO artist Jordan Schwartz delves into the building techniques of the LEGO masters and, with the aid of hundreds of stunning, full-color photos, shows us how the magic happens. A true LEGO prodigy, Schwartz became one of the LEGO Group’s youngest designers ever when he landed an internship at the age of eighteen. Now, he shares his expertise with readers, teaching them the tricks of LEGO artists so that they can learn to create like the masters and discover the magic of LEGO art for themselves.

Readers learn to think like the masters too, through interviews with thirteen standout LEGO builders. “When you’ve built with LEGO for a while, step-by-step instructions just aren’t as satisfying,” said Schwartz. “While instructions can show you how to re-create specific models, they fail to explain how and why the original builder made certain design choices. This book reveals those thought processes.”

The Art Of LEGO Design shows readers how to:

• Create lifelike creatures using ordinary elements in unusual ways—like inside-out tires for the legs of an octopus or minifigure capes for an owl
• Design sleek cars with smooth sides and no exposed studs on their bricks
• Add realism to dioramas with light bricks or LEDs
• Create real world textures like cobblestone roads and brick walls