— Letter from the Editors —

This Thing Looks Like That Thing, and Also, This Other Thing Also Looks Like That Other Thing from the Same Thing

Does Chip Kidd read Gothamist? (Probably not.)

Within hours of the smutty gubernatorial scandal’s breaking, Gothamist, the New York City–centric web log, challenged its readers to contribute Photoshopped fun (for free!). A week later, New York Magazine, the New York City–centric magazine, challenged some of the world’s most successful graphic designers to contribute Photoshopped fun (for a fee).

Can you tell which cheeky Chanel ad was designed by Chip Kidd, the legendary book-coverer and cheese monkey, and which was done by freelance commenter José?

Earlier in the week, New York Press also echoed the ’mist’s Something Awfulesqe photomanipulative dare:

See? New York’s professional graphic designers and its wacky Internet surfers think alike under deadline: hacky jokes requiring 15 seconds of Google Image Search and 45 seconds of cutting and pasting.

Also, it’s worth pointing out that this week, Y.P.R. out-Krugered Barbara Kruger.