chineasy visual language illustrations by noma bar + shao lan

‘chineasy’ visual language illustrations by noma bar + shao lan‘mouth’ characterimage courtesy noma bar

taiwanese artist shao lan has developed ‘chineasy’, a method which allows non-chinese readers to learn the written language by understanding the basic letter-form and meaning in a visual manner. once a few groups of primary cornerstone chinese characters known as radicals can be recognized, users are then able to combine the symbols and easily learn dozens of additional shapes and expressions.

by repeating this ‘recognize and combine’ process , one can quickly learn several hundred characters in a surprisingly short time. shao lan collaborated with london-based design firm brave new world and israeli illustrator noma bar to create eight different basic radicals, then expanded by integrating them into pictographic stories. for more information on the initiative, visit the ‘chineasy’ website, to see other vocabulary combinations and variations.

‘mountain’ characterimage courtesy noma bar

‘moon’ characterimage courtesy noma bar

‘tree’ characterimage courtesy noma bar

at sunrise, a young person went walking in the woodsimage courtesy noma bar

but wherever he went, fires started around him

soon, the whole forest was burningimage courtesy noma bar

as punishment, the gods ordered him to go to the holy mountain and remain there as a prisoner for the rest of his lifeimage courtesy noma bar

the flames around him got hotter and hotter until eventually the mountain erupted into a volcanoimages courtesy noma bar

the endimages courtesy noma bar

h/t wired