Typographic exploration in Hangul

The Typographic Explorations in Hangul exhibition at the UC Davis design museum
In Scott Mc Cloud’s graphic novel, “Understanding Comics”, McCloud describes words (typography) as the “ultimate abstraction” in which the appearance of what the word represents is gone, but that meaning is still there, i.e. the world “door” looks nothing like a door, but when read we translate it as “door” itself. In the works of Hyunju Lee and Phil Choo shown at this exhibition, we see the use of typography as the “ultimate abstraction”- it is because for those who cannot read Korean, we see the characters more as the form and shape as well as its role in the composition of the work. In Lee’s two works entitled “Hieut”, the character “Hieut” has a double meaning- either happiness/joy, or sadness. With such contrasting meanings, the only way to discern in speech or writing the use of the word is by the context. Lee takes this idea and uses the character “Hieut” (shown as “ha ha ho ho”- the characters for laughter) to portray happiness/joy by using many of the varying sized characters sporadically placed about the page, along a “smiling” arch of vibrant colors and seemingly bubble composition and overall feeling. In contrast, “Hieut” that represents sorrow (use of Huy/huk characters for crying) the work is muted, greys and blues, with a flat background line and the characters spaced apart, no contact, just “dripping” like tears. The key to these works is emotions conveyed through the work by the use of the Hangul character, meaning, and expression. These works show the use of design to convey a message of emotion through the work by the use of the typography and of colors.

For more information, check out the website: http://www.designmuseum.ucdavis.edu/ and come visit, it's in the design museum in Walker Hall.