# 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.

- Period: 2005–present
- Where: East Asia
- Origin: Seoul, South Korea: small studios run by one to a few designers, active from about 2005, such as Sulki & Min (founded 2005, with the imprint Specter Press, 2006–2021), Workroom (2006, with its publishing house Workroom Press) and studio fnt (2006). Designers had grown critical of design as a tool for advertising and corporate branding from the mid-1990s, and the Asian financial crisis of 1997–98 added to it. Some had studied abroad: Sulki & Min met as graduate students at Yale and researched at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, and Jude Kang studied in Switzerland. Finding no role models at home for the practice they wanted, Sulki & Min drew on the Amsterdam studio Mevis & Van Deursen, who taught at Yale and in the Netherlands and whose way of working influenced a generation of designers from those schools, and on their mentor Karel Martens. The scene was surveyed in 'Graphic Design, 2005~2015, Seoul' at the Ilmin Museum of Art (to 29 May 2016, curated by Choi Sung Min and Kim Hyungjin) and in 'Around Seoul*: Independent Graphic Design' (California College of the Arts, February 2020, curated by chris hamamoto), most of whose works went to Letterform Archive
- Branch: Postmodern
- Also known as: Seoul small studios (소규모 스튜디오), Korean independent graphic design, Graphic Design, 2005~2015, Seoul, Around Seoul* Independent Graphic Design
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/seoul-independent-design/

## Use it with care

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.

## How it works

- Stay small and work for culture: design the exhibition, the festival, the venue and the humanities book on a small budget, and publish your own books, journals and posters, instead of growing into an advertising agency.
- Let Hangul be the main material: reshape its modular syllable blocks, or break out of them to reinterpret older calligraphic scripts, and enlarge the letters until they become the image.
- Build Hangul and Latin as one system: choose or draw type families that cover both scripts, like Favorit Hangul beside Dinamo's Latin Favorit, and set the two alphabets side by side on the page as equals.
- Keep a small set of repeatable moves: centred alignment, one colour, circles, repetition, letters treated as objects and abstract shapes that only hint at a meaning. Kiljong Arcade drew exactly these shared traits from the 101 works indexed at the Ilmin Museum of Art in 2016.
- Let one concept govern the whole object: apply a single rule to every page or every poster, as Sulki & Min's Cosmos (2017) keeps the printing, paper and binding of a 1981 Korean edition but blurs every page into soft glows.
- Print short runs close to home: risograph with a studio-run print shop, silkscreen posters, and small offset editions sold at the Unlimited Edition art-book fair.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Isolated object](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/) (characteristic)
- [Dynamic asymmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dynamic-asymmetry/) (occasional)
- [Column grid](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/column-grid/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (defining)
- [Generous white space](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/generous-white-space/) (characteristic)
- [Extreme scale contrast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/) (characteristic)
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (occasional)
- [Layered information](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/layered-information/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Experimental & distorted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/experimental-and-distorted/) (defining)
- [Type as image](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/type-as-image/) (defining)
- [Grotesque & neo-grotesque](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/grotesque-and-neo-grotesque/) (characteristic)
- [Geometric sans](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-sans/) (occasional)
- [Brush & pen calligraphy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/brush-and-pen-calligraphy/) (occasional)
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (occasional)
- [Rotated & vertical setting](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rotated-and-vertical-setting/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Monochrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/) (defining)
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (characteristic)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (characteristic)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (characteristic)
- [Fluorescent & neon](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/fluorescent-and-neon/) (occasional)
- [Gradients](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/gradients/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Geometric primitives](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-primitives/) (defining)
- [Non-representational](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/non-representational/) (characteristic)
- [Rounded & pill](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rounded-and-pill/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (characteristic)
- [Grain & noise](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/grain-and-noise/) (occasional)
- [Misregistration & overprint](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/misregistration-and-overprint/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Ornament-free](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornament-free/) (characteristic)

### Imagery
- [Typography only](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/typography-only/) (defining)
- [Pattern & repeat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pattern-and-repeat/) (characteristic)
- [Treated photography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/treated-photography/) (occasional)
- [Found & vernacular imagery](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/found-and-vernacular-imagery/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Offset printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/offset-printing/) (defining)
- [Risograph](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/risograph/) (characteristic)
- [Screen printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/screen-printing/) (characteristic)
- [Web & CSS](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/web-and-css/) (occasional)

### Tone & intent
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (characteristic)
- [Ironic & self-aware](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ironic-and-self-aware/) (characteristic)
- [Rational & objective](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rational-and-objective/) (characteristic)
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (occasional)
- [Rebellious & subversive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rebellious-and-subversive/) (occasional)

Avoids: Abundant decoration, Floral & vegetal, Folk & sacred symbols, Ornamented display, Gloss & highlights, Chrome & 3D render, Skeuomorphic material, Painterly illustration, Luxurious & glamorous

Palette: #f3f1ec, #111111, #ff5aa5, #2448d8, #a7a49c

Typefaces: 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, Protoform, Sulki & Min's first Korean font family, drawn by the designers themselves, A custom typeface for Korean, Chinese and English in studio fnt's Cell of Fantasy identity for BiFan (2016), Hangul whose modular syllable forms are reshaped, or broken out of to reinterpret older calligraphic scripts

Known for: Sulki & Min, Cosmos (Seoul: Specter Press, 2017), named after a 1981 Korean translation of Carl Sagan's Cosmos, with the original's printing, paper, binding and content but every page blurred; Jude Kang, Typozimmer nos. 1–5 (2014–2016), an independent typography journal collecting his own design experiments, and the Type Structure poster series (2019); Moonsick Gang and PRESSROOM, posters for the launch of Favorit Hangul (2019; typeface by Yoon Mingoo with Dinamo), using both Hangul and Latin styles; Chris Ro, silkscreen posters (2019); Hong Eunjoo and Kim Hyungjae, Mad Pride Seoul posters (2019); An Mano, Spring is Coming and Breakdown, posters for the Jeonju International Film Festival (2019); Everyday Practice, Korean Art in the Nineties exhibition poster (2019) and the Park Geun-hye Gate website (2017); Sasa[44], One Hundred One Letters (2016): posters, bags and badges built from one letter taken from each of the 101 works indexed in 'Graphic Design, 2005~2015, Seoul' at the Ilmin Museum of Art

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Grew out of: [Neo-Swiss Revival](https://stylogeny.com/styles/swiss-revival.md) (2005–present)
- Influenced by: [Out-of-Square Hangul Typography](https://stylogeny.com/styles/out-of-square-hangul.md) (1985–present)
- Influenced by: [Risograph & Indie Print Culture](https://stylogeny.com/styles/risograph-indie.md) (2008–present)
- Alike in its design choices: [Zagreb Modernist Graphics (EXAT 51 to Teatar &TD)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/zagreb-modernist-graphics.md) (1951–1975), 73% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Lucerne Poster Scene (Neubad & Südpol Posters)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/lucerne-poster-scene.md) (2007–present), 73% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Di Tella Graphic Design (Instituto Torcuato Di Tella)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/di-tella-graphics.md) (1960–1970), 72% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Brazilian Concrete Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/brazilian-concrete.md) (1951–1975), 66% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Milanese Industrial Modernism (Olivetti, Pirelli, Studio Boggeri)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/milanese-industrial-modernism.md) (1933–1975), 64% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [International Typographic Style](https://stylogeny.com/styles/swiss-international.md) (1950–1975), 62% alike

## Sources

- Florence Fu, 'This Just In: Contemporary Design of South Korea' (interview with Choi Sung Min on 'Around Seoul*: Independent Graphic Design', CCA, February 2020), Letterform Archive, 14 September 2020, https://letterformarchive.org/news/contemporary-design-of-south-korea/ (mid-1990s turn against design as a tool for advertising and corporate design; the 1997–98 crisis; designers starting small and wanting to keep it that way; Unlimited Edition founded 2009; reshaping Hangul's modular forms or breaking out of them to reinterpret older calligraphic scripts; Favorit Hangul, designed with the Swiss studio Dinamo, and the Hangul and Latin launch posters; Typozimmer as a compilation of Kang's own design experiments, inspired partly by Typografische Monatsblätter while he was a student in Switzerland; captions for Cosmos, Typozimmer, Mad Pride Seoul, An Mano, Everyday Practice and Chris Ro)
- Han Yun-jeong, '그래픽 디자인, 어디까지 봤니', Kyunghyang Shinmun, 28 March 2016, https://www.khan.co.kr/article/201603282053135 (small studios active from 2005 as alternatives to commercial firms, working for low-budget cultural clients; curators Choi Sung Min and Kim Hyungjin; 101 reference works; Kiljong Arcade's shared traits: centre alignment, monochrome, circles, repetition, letter-like objects and object-like letters, suggestive abstract shapes; show ends 29 May)
- 'Graphic design in Seoul', Time Out Seoul, 22 March 2016, https://www.timeout.com/seoul/art/graphic-design-in-seoul (the searchable index of works by small-scale studios; Sasa[44]'s One Hundred One Letters; The Book Society's incomplete list of one-off printed matter; Corners and Manual's print shop, headed 'Riso Print shop', though the body text says 'lithography')
- '그래픽 디자인, 2005~2015, 서울', Cahier de Seoul, https://cahierdeseoul.com/ko/graphic-2005-2015-seoul (2005 as the year small studios became visible; an incomplete archive; work for publishing, art, photography, architecture and theatre as almost their only activity; Corners, founded 2012, which runs a risograph print shop and publishing house, listed with Manual among the participants)
- 'Insights: Sulki and Min Choi', Walker Art Center, 2 March 2016, https://www.walkerart.org/reader/insights-sulki-and-min-choi-sulki-min-seoul/ (practice in the cultural sector; Roman and Hangul alphabets; Hangul vowels and yin-yang patterns; Specter Press, 2006; 'Clarifying is our business, obscuring is our pleasure')
- Amy Henry, 'Just the two of us', Pulp 28, Fedrigoni, https://pulp.fedrigoni.com/articles/just-the-two-of-us/ (Sulki & Min met as graduate students at Yale and researched at the Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht; no role models in South Korea for the practice they wanted; Mevis & Van Deursen taught at Yale and in the Netherlands and influenced a generation from those schools; their mentor Karel Martens; return to Seoul in 2005; Specter Press 2006–2021; Workroom Specter from 2013; the influence of Mevis & Van Deursen and Karel Martens; the Protoform font family; inspired by Young-Jae Cho's 1976 proposal to restructure Hangul for typewriters, a study 'rarely discussed with the depth it deserves'; the origins of unsquared Hangul)
- Yujin Min, 'studio fnt', Communication Arts, https://www.commarts.com/features/studio-fnt (founded 2006; one or two colours; geometric shapes and patterns; bold Hangul; BiFan's Cell of Fantasy identity, 2016, with a custom typeface for Korean, Chinese and English)
- Jynann Ong, 'Ore-Oh on how simplicity is key', It's Nice That, 24 January 2020, https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/ore-oh-work-graphic-design-240120 (a Seoul studio founded 2016 for the cultural sector; Hangul as imagery; silkscreen printing)
- '소장품전: 2010년 이후 한국의 디자인 프로젝트 30', Monthly Design (design.co.kr), 1 July 2020, https://design.co.kr/article/19248 (the Ilmin show; GRAPHIC magazine's small-studio issues; Workroom Press's Propositions series, 2014–; Everyday Practice's Park Geun-hye Gate website, 2017)
- '원칙 없이도 그럴듯한, 권위를 비트는 디자이너 김형진', Design+ (design.co.kr), 15 October 2017, https://design.co.kr/article/15306 (Kim Hyungjin founded Workroom in 2006 with designer Lee Kyungsoo, editor Park Hwalsung and photographer Park Jeonghoon; Workroom Press started with Workroom in 2006 and set its course as a commercial publisher from 2011)

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Seoul Independent Graphic Design (Small-Studio Scene)”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/seoul-independent-design/