About this project
Some say a picture is worth a thousand words, but what if a picture is made of a thousand words?
Hi, my name is Hardy. I invented Tagxedo (http://www.tagxedo.com), a tool that turns words -- famous speeches, favorite poems, news articles, love letters -- into gorgeous artworks, like this:
Beautiful, isn't it?
The 'North America' artwork is one of seven in the 'Continents in Tagxedo' collection. Each Tagxedo is made of words (of different sizes, orientations, and fonts) about a continent, in its very own shape. Words are chosen from multiple sources, such as Wikipedia, travel essays, and articles about the continents, with more frequently mentioned words appearing bigger.
Tagxedo utilizes ground-breaking techniques to fit words neatly and precisely into the predefined shapes. The artworks are nearly impossible to create with any other method, without a Herculean manual effort. I decided to launch this project on KickStarter and allow people to pre-order the posters via pledges. The amount I ask for covers the setup costs for printing all the posters (each of which will measure a standard framing size between 18"x24" and 24"x36"), and help partially offset the cost of developing and running Tagxedo.
Thousands of users enjoy Tagxedo everyday, for free. Your generosity in supporting this project will allow me to continue to offer such wonderful tool, especially to teachers and children. And why not, given the uniquely beautiful posters in return?
Thank you!
-- Hardy Leung
________________________________________________________
P. S. Here are some of the early versions of the posters...
(1) Africa:
(2) Antarctica:
(3) Asia:
(4) Australia:
(5) Europe:
(6) North America:
(7) South America:
What a framed poster may look like (frame not part of the project):
FAQ
Have a question? If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the project creator directly.
9
Backers
$360
pledged of $6,000 goal
0
seconds to go
Funding Unsuccessful
This project reached the deadline without achieving its funding goal on April 12, 2011.
Pledge $30 or more Pledge $30 or more
One poster + a unique thank-you note (add $5 to pledge for US shipping, $10 for international)
Pledge $50 or more Pledge $50 or more
Two posters + a unique thank-you note (add $5 to pledge for US shipping, $10 for international)
Pledge $75 or more Pledge $75 or more
Three posters + a unique thank-you note (add $5 to pledge for US shipping, $10 for international)
Pledge $175 or more Pledge $175 or more
The complete collection + a bonus 'the World in Tagxedo' poster
Pledge $500 or more Pledge $500 or more
The complete collection + a bonus 'the World in Tagxedo' poster + a Tagxedo poster custom-made for you
Pledge $1,000 or more Pledge $1,000 or more
Two complete collections + two bonus 'the World in Tagxedo' posters + two Tagxedo posters custom-made for you
Pledge $2,000 or more Pledge $2,000 or more
Two complete collections + two bonus 'the World in Tagxedo' posters + two Tagxedo posters custom-made for you + a one-day private tutorial of Tagxedo (Silicon Valley only)
Project By
Has not connected their Facebook account.
I'm the inventor of Tagxedo, a tool that turns words - famous speeches, news articles, love letters - into beautiful artworks. Tagxedo is especially popular among teachers and students, and thousands of them visit Tagxedo every day.
I enjoy solving difficult but practical problems, and had written an automated trading platform (Pegasus, entrepreneur) and developed chip design softwares (Magma Design Automation, VP of Product Development).
I received a Bachelor of Science (Magna cum Laude) in Computer Science and Engineering from UCLA, a Master of Science in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, and a Master of Business Administration from UC Berkeley.
