99% | Ji Lee

Ji Lee, Creative Director or Google Creative Lab, talked on some of his personal projects:

After working at an ad agency for 4 years he grew tired of producing predictable ideas. He started the Bubble Project.

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He printed hunders of speech bubble stickers which he then (illegaly) pasted on ad campaigns all around the city. People started filling them in with copy. And a lot of people started their own bubbles. Even advertising agencies took the bubble idea and created Guerilla campaigns. He made it public and available for everyone to download on his site. Once BoinbBoing picked it up, it crashed his server and the project exploded. The Bubble Project even got coverage on abc News. Thanks to the internet, Bubbling has spread around the globe.

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One of his latest projects is the WTC Logo Preservation Project. World Trade Center buildings are present in thousands of classic New York skyline logos owned by local businesses in the city. They tend to belong to small businesses that are likely to disappear over the years to come. So are their logos and the Twin Towers. Ji started the project to preserve them, forever.

Ji at the end mentioned that he believes that personal and professional projects complement each other. A lot of his personal projects caught influential people’s attention and opened up new opportunities. He truly believes that creating platforms for other people to collaborate and engage is powerful. Sharing is rewarding! I couldn’t agree more. Ji’s talk was humble and surprising. Definitely a designer that earned my respect.

3 Comments leave a comment below

  1. This guy is just incredible. I’ve come across so many of his projects, separately, and am always amazed to find out he’s the one behind them.

  2. Ji was one my professors when I was an undergrad at Parsons. He is a truly amazing designer and person. I’m pretty positive that I began to see the world differently while taking his class.

  3. Ji Lee is a great designer. He knows how to use graphic designer to make a statement, movement, evoke emotion or to get a reaction.

    He’s a good example that graphic design is more than just making pretty things, great design communicates!