As a fast developing soft lithographic technique, the development of micro-contact printing (mu CP) has exceeded the original aim of replicating poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) stamp patterns. Here we exploited several extended mu CP strategies with various printing conditions (over-force or swelling induced physical deformation, and UV-Ozone treated chemical surface modification to a PDMS stamp), combining with surface initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP), to pattern complex poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAM) brush microstructures. These series of mu CP strategies avoid the need for expensive and sophisticated instrumentation in patterning complex polymer brush microstructures that do not exist on the original PDMS stamp. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.