Ji Lee

Instagram · @jileecious
Twitter · @PleaseEnjoy
Linkedin · @Ji Lee

I was born in Korea, raised in Brazil, and now I live and work in New York. I'm an independent artist and designer, but I also have a full time job as a creative director at Facebook and Instagram.

My parents were high-school teachers in Korea. To seek better economic opportunities, our family immigrated to São Paulo, Brazil when I was 10. Growing up, my dream was to become an artist like Picasso. With this dream, I went to New York to study at an art school. My parents used their savings to help pay my tuition. But I had to wait table at restaurants for many years to pay for my living. I realized I would have a very hard time making money as an artist. This is when I changed my major to graphic design. After graduating, I worked at graphic design firms, but I was doing very dry and boring corporate work. So I ended up switching to advertising with the hopes of doing more creative work. But the work was still very safe and uncreative. This is when I started to make personal projects like the Bubble Project and Word as Image. These projects became famous and ended up helping me professionally. But most importantly, I was able to find my passion of making things again through personal project. Since then, I continue to always dedicate my time and energy to work on personal projects. Today, I'm a passionate advocate of the message that anyone can benefit from working on personal projects and transform their lives.