Typographic exploration in Hangul (2)

In my second analysis of the exhibition, I noticed a distinct difference between Choo and Lee’s works- while both portray emotions and an idea through the design of the work, each artist has a unique “flair” discernable to their own hand that exhibits a slightly different thought process to the use of the same medium/material- i.e. printed typography. There were quite a few works in which the artist took inspiration and meaning from traditional Korean poetry or songs, but each artist interpreted this in a different way. For Choo, the works are more monochromatic and bold font face, there is a stronger sense of movement in his works, like the “Letters From Korea” in which many of Hongul fonts burst from a letter, where the message is the hope for Hongul to be able to travel the world and share its beauty with that world. Lee’s works take more “soft” tone, with the use of muted colors, but still having a “light airy” feeling that is reminiscent of brush stroke through her works that portray flowers, where each “stroke” of the character of Hangul represented, although created on a computer, show the movement that was the original origin for that line when the character is written with a brush. It’s all about aesthetics in these works, as their design keeps what is pleasing to the eye in mind, all the time keeping their messages and ideas intact.

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.