Semantic typography is playful with words

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but what if you make a picture out of a word itself? That's exactly what Korean designer Ji Lee has done in this fun little series of images. It's taken some time, though; he actually started the project more than 20 years ago back in art school.

Ji Lee says of that time: "Students were encouraged to see letters beyond their dull, practical functionality. The challenge was to visualize the meaning of a word, using only the graphic elements of the letters forming the word, without adding any outside parts. The challenge was very hard, but the reward of 'cracking' a word felt great. So this became a lifelong project for me."

In 2011, Lee published a book entitled 'Word as Image' containing almost 100 words. The imagination behind the project is staggering and has us appreciating these words in a whole new light.

See more of Ji Lee's work over on his website.

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Which of these printed words are your favourite? We can't choose! let us know in the comments box below.