A fanatical Hunger Games fan by the name of V. Arrow has thoughtfully and carefully put together a map of Panem’s 13 districts, taking into account all historical accounts from the books, and merging what has been revealed about each district with the typography and natural resources of North America.

Click on over to aimmyarrowshigh’s LiveJournal, where she details the reasonings and processes that went into developing this magnificent map.

She also has a small FAQ section which answers, “Why don’t you leave big blank spaces of empty land between the Districts? What about the Wilderness?” and “Y U NO HAVE MORE OF CANADA AND MEXICO?”

Via Nerd Approved.

I recently came across some minimalist portraits of cultural icons by Israeli illustrator Noma Bar. I was immediately drawn to these pieces for their brilliant use of negative space, elegant subtlety, as well as Bar’s use of an object or symbol embedded in the design that helps identify the subject. (I especially love Bill Murray’s!)

Can you guess them all?

All these illustrations, and many more, can be found in the book Guess Who?: The Many Faces of Noma Bar.

Via Brain Pickings.

It’s been a long day. Looking at these sugar-sweet illustrations from Berlin-based artist Ingrid Aspöck is exactly what I needed — I hope that they put a smile on your face too!

Via Bit Rebels.

I am loving the Word as Image project and the accompanying book. Started 20 years ago as an assignment in typography class in art school, Ji Lee creates images out of words by contorting the letters that form the word itself.

Anyone can create a word as image. It doesn’t require any design or drawing skills. All you need is a little creative thinking and to see words and letters in a different way. The dictionary is filled with thousands of fun visual puzzles just waiting to be solved.

Now that I think about it, I can recall that I learned the word “parallel” — which happens to be one of the words pictured below — by remembering the three parallel lines embedded within the word, just as Lee illustrates.

Can you think of any other “word as image” examples? Join in on the conversation at the Word as Image Facebook Page!

Via My Modern Met.

This comic would not be complete without the following caption from its creator:

I’m working on another new entertainment concept.  It’s called “Outside”.

Via Doghouse Diaries.