In his most recent series of work, graphic designer and illustrator Kim Jung-bin (@hi_bin) from Seoul, South Korea, shares comical drawings featuring historical and cultural icons, all of which are no more than an inch (2.5 centimeters) in size. Jung-bin says that these tiny illustrations are parody images based on word play. “I take words from quotes of a well-known figure or a title of some famous work and replace it with something that sound phonetically similar,” he says. While many of the visual puns he demonstrates can only be understood in the Korean language, there are some obvious ones — like Abraham Lincoln eating a slice of ham or the King of Pop riding a bicycle to illustrate “Cycle Jackson.” Jung-bin admits that it’s not always easy to come up with witty puns that he can also visualize, but he enjoys the humor and letting others join in on the fun. “I believe that an artist must be happy to make people happy, and that’s what I aim for when I’m drawing.”
Photo by @hi_bin