I started on my project with an interest in Korean typography in the globalized world and Korean typographic designer’s works. Nowadays, various activities and discussions in Korean typography university students union “Han-ul” have been working. Diverse exhibitions have been held with an active participation as well. At this point of time, I realize that designer has an important role to arouse people’s interest as a member of society.
I have been impressed by Sang-Soo Ahn’s work. His works have given me a good impression that makes me go deep into Korean typography for a long time. His new attempting to Korean typography allows me to discover a great potentiality with curiosity.
Each field of society is mutually connected. Social- cultural change has an effect on typography. A high level of economic growth in South Korea has influenced on people’s living condition. It results in the improvement of social welfare, the elevation of education standards. It follows a rise in the standard of living and cultural level. As a natural result, People have gradually realized the importance of Korean culture. Also, lots of people have seriously concerned about a dominant use of english at the same time. About 35% of the world's mail, telexes, and cables are in English. Developing countries do not dedicate enough time to the education of native language. This situation has a possibility to bring a negative effect on the development of Korean typography.
With the advent of problems in the globalized world, a new movement is following. Fortunately, Nowadays, various activities that related to Korean Typography has been already working. we need to have an attention to the development of Korean typography with the stream of globalization.
Moreover, I have been inspired by ‘Korean typographic designer’ Sang - Soo Ahn’s work with Korean traditional pattern. One of the most important features in Ahn’s work in which I have been interested is unpacking design. Korean typography is usually organized within a square of the same size. He developed the first ever “out-of-frame” Hangul typeface, called Ahn Sang-Soo font.
The distinct figurative characteristics and experimentations in his work is that each letter is regarded as not only a means of communication but also a formative element. Korean letters consist of basic formative elements such as dot, vertical stroke, horizontal stroke, diagonal stroke, circle. By using these geometries, he created a unique graphic pattern.
I’m also interested in Korean traditional pattern that is made up of horizontal and vertical rectangle, overlapped and repeated lines. when I visited a buddhist temple, I was fascinated by a delicate complexity and harmony of colors. Finally, I try to make a interesting experiment by collaborating on a work with artists. I want to create a graphic pattern by using a geometric elements in letters and patterns and apply them into various materials that people can use in a daily life. I believe that my project help to aware of the importance of typography that has their own social identity and encourage people have a interest in korean typography.
www.ssahn.com
Sooyoung Hur
I think that Korean characters and visual identities, like patterns, are really beautiful and it would be nice to enrich our western culture with your own culture. However, how would you make it in a way that we can understand it? Will the graphic patterns made of the graphic elements in the letters have some meaning? Will you translate it for us?
ReplyDeleteHow can you “use” us (classmates, western typographic culture) in order to help and contribute to your project?
What can you learn from the widely explored typography in Europe?
ANNA said
ReplyDeleteThan your final work will be a daily life object? Or only the typography applied on it?
Why do you want to apply the typography on an object? Maybe you have to think more in which type of object do you want to use for instance, could be an object deeply related with the Korean’s culture.
How will the patterns relate with people and make them more aware? What messages do you want to convey?
ReplyDeleteYou expressed some concerns because of the use of english. Will this take part in your project in some way? Which people do you want to reach?
I liked that you want to use patterns for typography, as patterns are traditional and therefore express what you want in a globalised world.
ReplyDeleteWas it difficult to adapt to Ahn Sang Soos new font?
Do you think a Hangul typeface can be done with another shape other than square?