Ji Lee, former Creative Director at Google Creative Labs, has created this wonderful animated short to promote his new book Word as Image:
The book collects together almost 100 of Lee’s illustrations. Each image is created out of a word, using only the letters in the word itself. Only the graphic components of the letters are used without adding outside elements.
(via Swissmiss)
Disturbing similarities -> http://p.twimg.com/AboGEW6CIAAsqrO.jpg:large
Thanks for the heads up. I’ve posted a link to Joel’s Facebook post to the Casual Optimist Twitter and to Facebook. I would be interested know what other people think.
Just saw your facebook post. Im not sure if its plagiarism or just a coincidence, it possibly could be a coincidence. I’ve seen this everywhere lately and didn’t think it was particularly original or clever! My first project 2 years a go upon starting my graphic design course was to create a poster that illustrated one word using the word itself. Everyone came up with lots of things like this!
Not that I didn’t enjoy watching this but I would have thought it was a student project rather than by the creative director of google! Even worse if its a rip off! Its all a bit like ‘Watching words move” by Robert Brownjohn anyway.
Long comment sorry! Definitely could be a coincidence, but in my opinion its the sort of thing any designer could think of if they tried.
Thanks for your comment, Theo.
I don’t really know anything of Ji Lee other than his CV, this book, and his 99% talk. I know even less about Joel Guenoun. I can’t speak to their integrity (or lack thereof) and I’m not a designer, so I’m hardly qualified to pass judgment on the relative quality of their work.
I agree, however, that visual puns like these seem common at all levels of design. Clever combinations of image and type are the basis of most company logos and animated word-images are seen in film titles and advertising.
Even before this came to light, I did not think Lee’s work particularly original. Some of the word-images even feel like cliches (no one wins an innovation prize for a clock inside an “o”). I simply thought the video was a witty, nicely executed, example of this kind of work. And given the nature of Lee’s project, with its rules and open invitation to contribute designs, I suspect he probably recognizes this.
Nevertheless, I have some sympathy for Joel Guenoun. There are some obvious similarities between some of Lee’s designs and his own. I am sure it must be aggravating to see this video all over the internet when you are not as well known (at least in Anglophone countries) as Ji Lee and can claim to have been there first.