Check it Out: Cool Sim-City-esque Illustrations of Beijing

Fastcodesign points us to a cool series of illustrations by Beijing artist Li Han (with a tip of the hat to Trevor Hale for bringing this to our attention):

Trained as an architect, Li draws his "Urban Landscapes" using axonometry, an anti-perspective pictorial device commonly found in architectural drafting; It renders buildings as three-dimensional objects. Li uses the technique to project entire neighborhoods and city districts onto materials that threaten to breach the borders of the page (or the T-shirts, bags, and other collectibles Li produces for the design label SQY-T). The effect recalls the pixelated, skewed skylines of SimCity, where rows of buildings become toy-like building blocks, each neatly delineated from the other by crisply outlined roadways, sidewalks, and green spaces.

The difference is that Li carefully populates each of his city scenes with all kinds of urban props--people, their pets, parked cars, trees--anything and everything that he encounters while making his way across Beijing. Where SimCity’s urban facsimiles can feel joyless and sterile, Li’s works burst with spontaneous activity. "I use photos and videos to document the space, and what people do in the space," Li explains to Co. Design. The "raw materials" he collects on his perambulations find their way into the drawings, most enjoyably in the form of animated human figures, who, Li says, "complete" and vivify his city portraits.

Read on here.