This archive holds my personal texts related to past, present and future of Korean typography and design.
A thought on the class
History of Korean Design
A class I took on my previous school
This class course was based on a book 'History of Korean Design' which has pessimistic approach on explaining Korean Design. Based on the course & book Korean design is based on..
Plagiarism: During the time when the Korean government focused on economic growth, they also invested in creating good Korean artistic contents, including design. However, Korea did not have enough education system and people who had professional design training. Combined with the lack of recognition for copyrights, Korea plagiarized lots of design from outside the country, especially Japan. One of the most iconic examples is “Robot Taegwon V”, the iconic Korean cartoon of all time. Plagiarism did not end on a cartoon character, but also on posters, icons, products, snack packaging, movies, music, etc. This is still continued today, and still, a problem that we have to face.
Internalized Orientalism: During the colonization and influences from the outside world, Korea internalized orientalism toward their culture. One of the iconic examples is a Korean travel advertisement poster from the 70s. Lots of travel poster promoting Korean culture focuses on the tradition from old times, which did not reflect how Korea looked like during that time. In the 70s, Korea was quite westernized and did not have those ‘traditional lifestyle’
Capitalist Propaganda: Korea has gone through extreme shift in politics throughout history. Korean design was influenced under governmental policies, especially under dictatorship. For example, the use of obangsaek (five colors) is also a result of politic. Obangsaek is considered to be iconic colors that represent Korea, which is why it’s widely used by modern Korean designers. During the Park Jung-hee dictatorship from the 70s, obangsaek was considered to be a color of “primitive” Korean Shamanism and should be avoided. The obangsaek revived during the 80s when former president Jeon Do-Hwan dictatorship happened.
It is questionable whether Korea would’ve been able to achieve the current level of design progress without this disturbing process. However, it created a burden a new generation of designers have to fix.
A class I took on my previous school
This class course was based on a book 'History of Korean Design' which has pessimistic approach on explaining Korean Design. Based on the course & book Korean design is based on..
Plagiarism: During the time when the Korean government focused on economic growth, they also invested in creating good Korean artistic contents, including design. However, Korea did not have enough education system and people who had professional design training. Combined with the lack of recognition for copyrights, Korea plagiarized lots of design from outside the country, especially Japan. One of the most iconic examples is “Robot Taegwon V”, the iconic Korean cartoon of all time. Plagiarism did not end on a cartoon character, but also on posters, icons, products, snack packaging, movies, music, etc. This is still continued today, and still, a problem that we have to face.
Internalized Orientalism: During the colonization and influences from the outside world, Korea internalized orientalism toward their culture. One of the iconic examples is a Korean travel advertisement poster from the 70s. Lots of travel poster promoting Korean culture focuses on the tradition from old times, which did not reflect how Korea looked like during that time. In the 70s, Korea was quite westernized and did not have those ‘traditional lifestyle’
Capitalist Propaganda: Korea has gone through extreme shift in politics throughout history. Korean design was influenced under governmental policies, especially under dictatorship. For example, the use of obangsaek (five colors) is also a result of politic. Obangsaek is considered to be iconic colors that represent Korea, which is why it’s widely used by modern Korean designers. During the Park Jung-hee dictatorship from the 70s, obangsaek was considered to be a color of “primitive” Korean Shamanism and should be avoided. The obangsaek revived during the 80s when former president Jeon Do-Hwan dictatorship happened.
It is questionable whether Korea would’ve been able to achieve the current level of design progress without this disturbing process. However, it created a burden a new generation of designers have to fix.
A thought on the book
Korean Typography
Written by Song Seong-Jae
The author is quite critical about the current Korean typography trend, including Ann-Sang Soo. His writings were quite thought-provocative and made me rethink not only about typography design trend but also about the Korean writing system itself.
Written by Song Seong-Jae
The author is quite critical about the current Korean typography trend, including Ann-Sang Soo. His writings were quite thought-provocative and made me rethink not only about typography design trend but also about the Korean writing system itself.
A thought on the other book
Made in North Korea
Written by Nicholas Bonner
“Design” is not the term the general public will expect from the conversation of DPRK. It is not likely general people from North Korea will understand the term, due to is closed policy toward the international world. Overall it was interesting to see designs, especially graphic designs from North Korea that promote communist propaganda for the people of DPRK and foreigners from the outside world. However, the big problem is that this book is simply a random index of artworks. It does not explain the reason behind each artwork, nor they were organized according to a timeline. Although North Korea was a closed nation that is known for violating human rights, I don’t think it necessarily means that it did not go through any change during the 70 years of the post-Korean war period.
Written by Nicholas Bonner
“Design” is not the term the general public will expect from the conversation of DPRK. It is not likely general people from North Korea will understand the term, due to is closed policy toward the international world. Overall it was interesting to see designs, especially graphic designs from North Korea that promote communist propaganda for the people of DPRK and foreigners from the outside world. However, the big problem is that this book is simply a random index of artworks. It does not explain the reason behind each artwork, nor they were organized according to a timeline. Although North Korea was a closed nation that is known for violating human rights, I don’t think it necessarily means that it did not go through any change during the 70 years of the post-Korean war period.
A thought on designer
Kim Jin-Pyung
A Korean typography designer
Kim Jin-Pyung is one of the pioneers of Korean font designers. His works are still relevant to the modern Korean typography design. Although the book itself is a little bit outdated when it comes to design tools, it has fundamental information that was beneficial for me to start understanding the elements of Korean typography.
A Korean typography designer
Kim Jin-Pyung is one of the pioneers of Korean font designers. His works are still relevant to the modern Korean typography design. Although the book itself is a little bit outdated when it comes to design tools, it has fundamental information that was beneficial for me to start understanding the elements of Korean typography.
A thought on the place
Seoul, South Korea
A place I currently (legally) live in
I SEOUL U AND YOU SEOUL ME
I SEOUL U AND YOU SEOUL ME
I SEOUL U AND YOU SEOUL ME
I SEOUL U AND YOU SEOUL ME
I SEOUL U AND YOU SEOUL ME
A place I currently (legally) live in
I SEOUL U AND YOU SEOUL ME
I SEOUL U AND YOU SEOUL ME
I SEOUL U AND YOU SEOUL ME
I SEOUL U AND YOU SEOUL ME
I SEOUL U AND YOU SEOUL ME