Style combination · Pairs well

Risograph × Seoul Independent Graphic Design

Corners (founded 2012), which runs a risograph print shop and publishing house, set up a print shop with Manual inside the Ilmin exhibition in 2016; print a small-studio poster in one or two riso inks, but keep the Hangul–Latin type system as the subject rather than illustration.

From the research on Seoul Independent Graphic Design (Small-Studio Scene)

Mix them and make something Risograph Seoul Independent Graphic Design

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Seoul Independent Graphic Design, their arrangement from Seoul Independent Graphic Design, the finish from Risograph. 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.

Risograph & Indie Print Culture Seoul Independent Graphic Design (Small-Studio Scene)

Type from Seoul Independent Graphic Design: Experimental & distorted
Type as image
Colour from Risograph: Limited spot colours
Fluorescent & neon
Form from Seoul Independent Graphic Design: Geometric primitives
Non-representational
Composition from Seoul Independent Graphic Design: Repetition & rhythm
Central symmetry
Surface from Risograph: Misregistration & overprint
Grain & noise

The type

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

Display · Seoul Independent Graphic Design

Pop

Black Han Sans, standing in for Favorit Hangul (Yoon Mingoo with Dinamo, 2019), a Hangul companion to Dinamo's Latin Favorit, part of the type industry's turn to multi-script families

Text · Risograph

A contemporary culture of zines, art books, posters and prints made on Japanese Risograph stencil duplicators, whose soy-based spot inks (fluorescent pink, yellow, blue, teal) are laid down one drum at a time. Designers embrace the machine's limits: translucent overprints, slight misregistration, grainy coverage and coarse halftones give flat illustration and type a warm, handmade vibrancy at low cost.

Inter; Risograph used Neo-grotesques set large and Monospace and typewriter faces

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Risograph, with a counter-accent from Seoul Independent Graphic Design. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Risograph & Indie Print Culture Seoul Independent Graphic Design (Small-Studio Scene)

#f4f1ea ground · 36%
#3255a4 ink · 14%
#ff48b0 accent · 18%
#2448d8 accent · 14%
#f15060 accent · 10%
#00838a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f4f1ea;
  --ink: #3255a4;
  --accent-1: #ff48b0;
  --accent-2: #2448d8;
  --accent-3: #f15060;
  --accent-4: #00838a;
  --font-display: "Black Han Sans", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Inter", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Seoul Independent Graphic Design (Small-Studio Scene): These are living, named designers and studios, so never attribute a generated poster or book to Sulki & Min, Everyday Practice or any other studio, and never prompt an image model with their names. Image models often produce pseudo-Hangul: have every Hangul word written or checked by a Korean reader, or leave the text out. Do not paste hanbok, dancheong patterns or a taegeuk emblem on as decoration to signal 'Korean'; where the studios touch such ideas (Sulki & Min's patterns on Hangul vowels and yin-yang), they work them out through the structure of the letters. Choi Sung Min warns that the pressure on Korean designers to find a 'true self' is a problematic Orientalism, and this scene works through type and concept, not national motifs.

The two styles

Large pink lettering reading “PLANT CLUB” sits above a blue cat looking upward among potted houseplants and trailing vines. Bright yellow and pink offset shapes and grainy ink textures cover the cream background.

2008–present · Global / networked Risograph & Indie Print Culture A contemporary culture of zines, art books, posters and prints made on Japanese Risograph stencil duplicators, whose soy-based spot inks (fluorescent pink, yellow, blue, teal) are laid down one drum at a time. Designers embrace the machine's limits: translucent overprints, slight misregistration, grainy coverage and coarse halftones give flat illustration and type a warm, handmade vibrancy at low cost. 2005–present · East Asia Seoul Independent Graphic Design (Small-Studio Scene) Graphic design by Seoul's small, self-run studios, which from about 2005 chose to stay small. They design for low-budget culture (exhibitions, festivals, humanities books) and for their own imprints and journals. Typography carries the work: Hangul is reshaped within or beyond its syllable blocks, set beside Latin as one system and enlarged into the picture. Layouts are often centred, in one colour, with circles, repetition and letters treated as objects. Runs are short, in offset, risograph or silkscreen.