Seinfeld's Final Episode and Design That Makes You Smile

Ever since I took my first steps in the design world, I have been searching for those clever little plays on symbols and graphic shapes to convey a message. Whether I am working on a new brand identity or reflecting on Seinfeld's final episode and design that makes you smile, finding that perfect visual pun is my ultimate goal in almost every project I do.

You know the "I Love NY" logo, right?

In professional terms, this is called a Visual Pun. My Master's thesis at Pratt Institute in New York back in 1998 was entirely dedicated to this topic, and I haven't stopped playing with it throughout my three decades of experience in the field.

The genius designer behind the "I Love NY" logo is Milton Glaser. I had the incredible honor of interviewing him personally in New York in 1998 for my thesis. Glazer designed this iconic logo in 1975 as part of a campaign to promote tourism for the city. When I asked him about the choice to use a heart instead of the word "love", and why he thought it became one of the most recognized logos in the world, his answer was brilliant. "This is an example of discovering the obvious."

He explained that from a designer's perspective, simply showing the obvious isn't necessarily genius. What makes a design smart and memorable is the designer's ability to present the obvious in a way that makes the viewer connect the dots and understand the hidden message.

Visual Puns use symbols instead of, or alongside, words to create a multi-layered message. There are three main types:

The first type is a symbol that represents a word with the exact same meaning (like a heart for "love") or the exact same sound. Look at Paul Rand's 1981 IBM logo. An eye sounds like the letter 'I', a bee sounds like the letter 'B', and the 'M' is just 'M'. Put them together, and you get IBM.

The second type is a symbol or symbols that carry two meanings simultaneously, both crucial to the message. A great example is a J&B Whiskey ad created by the American agency Grace & Rothschild between 1987 and 1990. The ad shows a cow standing on top of a 3D J&B logo with the tagline "Meat over a J&B" that sounds exactly like "Meet over a J&B." Swapping "meet" for "meat" and placing the cow on the logo delivers a clever double meaning.

The third type is a symbol shaped exactly like a specific letter, helping to deliver the message. Look at Herb Lubalin's 1956 cover design for a "Rock & Roll" insurance booklet. A picture of a rock replaces the letter 'O' in the word Rock, and a round bread roll replaces the letter 'O' in Roll.

Seinfeld as a Killer?

MyPratt thesis also had a practical part where we had to design real-life examples to illustrate my research. I presented my thesis at the end of May 1998, exactly one day after the broadcast of the brilliant Seinfeld series finale!

As a huge fan who never missed a single episode during my four years in New York, applying my thesis conclusions to Seinfeld elements right as the show ended felt like magic, not just coincidence.

I designed three elements, one for each type of visual pun: The TV Guide Cover: for the first type I designed a special edition cover for the Seindeld's series finale featuring a bald George Costanza and a frantic Kramer. The headline read, " The Bald and the Beautiful' The End." This was a play on the famous American soap opera "The Bold and the Beautiful." The similar sounds of bald and bold, combined with the image of bald George and "beautiful" Kramer, delivered the message with a lot of humor.

The Cereal Box: For the second type, I designed a cereal box featuring Jerry Seinfeld on the front. Instead of the cereal's name, it said "Cereal Killer." Anyone who watched the show knows Jerry's deep love for cereal and his fully stocked kitchen shelf. But of course, it sounds exactly like "Serial Killer." Swapping the words created that classic visual pun double meaning.

The Eyewear Ad: For the third type, where a symbol replaces a letter of the same shape, I designed a newspaper ad for an eyewear chain. The image showed Elaine yelling, with a weird pair of glasses pushed up on her forehead. The headline said, "In about an hour." Elaine's wide open, yelling mouth perfectly replaced the letter 'O' in the word 'hour'. The fine print read: "In about an hour, the final episode of Seinfeld will air, and you still haven't received the new glasses you ordered. Now is the time to come get them, because with us, there is no such thing as 'we will see'. We promise that you WILL see."

Finally, I want to bring you back to the present with a contemporary example of a visual pun in a logo I recently designed for a restaurant called "Shulchan" (which means "Table" in Hebrew).

Milton Glaser was the one that told me you need to know how to present the obvious. When I sat down to design this logo, it felt like the Hebrew letter "ח" (Het) was practically begging me to do something with it. By stretching the letter and giving it a distinct color, it literally transformed into a table.