Style combination · Pairs well

Chaekgeori × Korean Commercial Calligraphy

Munjado paints a character full of pictures and commercial calligraphy bends a brushed word into a picture of its meaning; pair them for a Korean identity in which writing and image are the same mark.

From the research on Korean Commercial Calligraphy (Kaelligeurapi)

Mix them and make something Chaekgeori Korean Commercial Calligraphy

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Chaekgeori, their arrangement from Chaekgeori, the finish from Korean Commercial Calligraphy. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Chaekgeori & Minhwa Screen Painting Korean Commercial Calligraphy (Kaelligeurapi)

Type from Korean Commercial Calligraphy: Brush & pen calligraphy
Hand-lettering
Colour from Korean Commercial Calligraphy: Monochrome
Limited spot colours

Chaekgeori avoids monochrome: this is where the two pull against each other.
Form from Chaekgeori: Rectilinear
Naturalistic depiction
Composition from Chaekgeori: Modular grid
Framed panels

Korean Commercial Calligraphy avoids modular grid: this is where the two pull against each other.
Surface from Korean Commercial Calligraphy: Painterly brushwork

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Korean Commercial Calligraphy

Pop

Kaushan Script; Korean Commercial Calligraphy used Gungche (궁체), the palace style of Hangul seoye in regular, semi-cursive and cursive forms, a trained hand some commercial calligraphers start from, though Kang names Chusa's Hanja writing as his model and many brush-pen hobbyists have no seoye training and Panbonche (판본체), modelled on the woodblock Hangul of the Hunminjeongeum, and minche (민체), the less regular folk style

Text · Chaekgeori

Korean painted folding screens of the late Joseon period. Chaekgeori ('books and things') stack books, bronzes, ceramics and scholar's tools, often in a grid of bookcase compartments drawn with Western-derived shading and several viewpoints at once. Promoted at court by King Jeongjo, the genre passed to anonymous folk painters (minhwa), who also made munjado screens in which one Confucian-virtue character is built from emblematic pictures.

Shippori Mincho; Chaekgeori used Haeseo (regular script) brush characters and Munjado pictorial ideographs built from emblematic motifs

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Korean Commercial Calligraphy, with a counter-accent from Chaekgeori. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Chaekgeori & Minhwa Screen Painting Korean Commercial Calligraphy (Kaelligeurapi)

#f4f0e6 ground · 36%
#151515 ink · 14%
#b9312b accent · 18%
#d9a23a accent · 14%
#2f5d50 accent · 10%
#6e6a64 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f4f0e6;
  --ink: #151515;
  --accent-1: #b9312b;
  --accent-2: #d9a23a;
  --accent-3: #2f5d50;
  --accent-4: #6e6a64;
  --font-display: "Kaushan Script", cursive;
  --font-text: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
}

Use it with care

Korean Commercial Calligraphy (Kaelligeurapi): Kaelligeurapi is a living profession with named authors: commission or credit a calligrapher, never trace or imitate a published logotype such as Chamisul's or Hwayo's, which belong to their brands, and never present a generated hand as the work of Kang Byung-in, Kim Jong-gun or another named writer. Have every word written or checked by a fluent Hangul reader, since image models produce pseudo-Hangul with broken or misplaced jamo and Korean buyers spot a misspelt syllable at once. It grew from Korean seoye, a tradition distinct from Chinese shufa and Japanese shodō, so do not label it Chinese or Japanese or swap Hanja or kana in for Hangul, and do not stamp a red seal bearing a real person's name without their consent.

The two styles

An ornate Korean-language reading app screen resembles a painted cabinet of books, flowers, ceramics, decorative boxes, birds, a tiger, and a sleeping cat. A large calligraphic title sits above four illustrated navigation buttons, surrounded by floral borders in muted red, blue, green, and gold.

1776–present · East Asia Chaekgeori & Minhwa Screen Painting Korean painted folding screens of the late Joseon period. Chaekgeori ('books and things') stack books, bronzes, ceramics and scholar's tools, often in a grid of bookcase compartments drawn with Western-derived shading and several viewpoints at once. Promoted at court by King Jeongjo, the genre passed to anonymous folk painters (minhwa), who also made munjado screens in which one Confucian-virtue character is built from emblematic pictures.

Large, sweeping black brush calligraphy spelling the Korean word “봄” sits on a pale cream background. Two dark green leaves sprout from the upper stroke, with dry-brush streaks visible throughout.

1999–present · East Asia Korean Commercial Calligraphy (Kaelligeurapi) Brush-written Hangul made for commerce, not the scroll. From Kim Jong-gun's studio Philmuk (1999) and Kang Byung-in's Sooltong institute (2002), calligraphers trained in seoye write one word or a short phrase in ink and use it as the logotype or title of soju labels, ramyeon packs, film posters, TV dramas and book covers. Strokes swell, pool and dry out, and letters are bent to picture their meaning, so 'bom' (spring) sprouts like grass. The word stands alone in black on a pale ground, or as the one hand-made thing over a photograph.

More combinations

With Chaekgeori

With Korean Commercial Calligraphy

Every style combination