I've stumbled on a great article that tells the story about how AES came to be and how it works, using stick figure pictures.

This would be an interesting read for the uninitiated (into the world of crypto programming) folks who are passionate about security and would like to know everything about it.

Below is the very first picture from the story (to get you interested), to read more please go here - A Stick Figure Guide to the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).