Visual Portfolio

Interpreting K-Pop through Typography: Hong Jun-ki ‹Jun.Playlist›

Writer: Hong Jun-ki

Visual Portfolio

Digging into the artist's fascinating work

Introducing the special poster work of graphic designer Hong Jun-ki. The artist organized K-pop that he frequently listens to and worked on typography for a long time. That archive is ‹jun.playlist›. Based on the fashion, makeup, choreography, story, and worldview of the music video, he collected graphic motifs and extracted repetitive words, refrains, and titles from the lyrics. The posters received a great response from K-pop fans around the world. Check out the article about his work that even foreigners are curious about!

Please introduce the ‹jun.playlist› project.

‹jun.playlist› is a project to create and share typography posters of K-Pop music that I personally listen to frequently. It started in June 2020, and the archive website was released in January 6. To design the posters, I first organized my favorite K-Pop musicians and music to select the songs I would work on. Before sketching, I got a lot of inspiration from music videos. I collected graphic motifs based on the fashion, makeup, choreography, story, and worldview in the videos. When I started making the posters, I extracted repetitive words, refrains, and titles from the lyrics that could effectively convey the feeling of the song. Then, I chose a font that suited each song and worked on the typography using appropriate characters from the Korean and Roman alphabets. After that, I tested the layout and created several versions of the posters with slightly different variations, and shared the ones that best expressed the songs with people.

I'm curious about the motivation and concept of this work.

It started with thinking about what I really like. I started by thinking about what kind of work would be sustainable. I came up with a project that combined my personal hobbies, such as listening to music and watching music videos, with my favorite fields as a designer, such as typography, font design, and lettering design. At first, it was more of a light approach to expressing my favorite K-pop music using various font styles. I concretized the project while thinking about which font would be most effective in showing the feeling of the song, and I experimented with various methods before releasing my first work. I went through trial and error, such as adding color or using illustrations, and that’s how I came to my current direction. After that, I organized my poster design style, and decisions became faster, and my work started to pile up, which led me to create an archive website. The website made it easier to access the posters, and I organized them so that they could be viewed together with music videos or grouped by singer.

Gashina Gashina, Sunmi Sunmi 2017 © jun.playlist

Cherry Bomb, NCT 127, 2017 © jun.playlist

What are some things to keep in mind when working?

It is fun to compare the feelings and images of a song and how they are visually expressed in a single poster. I asked for a lot of advice from people around me so that the poster I designed with my subjective impressions could be more universal. So I added devices that make it easier for people to visually understand and sympathize with the song. If you already know the song, I think it will be more fun to look at the parts I intended in the poster and enjoy it. In addition, I would like you to pay attention to the diversity of typography using Korean and Roman alphabets. At first, I mainly used the Roman alphabet, but when the Korean title or lyrics expressed the song more effectively, I actively used Korean. I also mixed Korean and Roman alphabets, combined two or three contrasting fonts, or used new lettering. I think the project will be more interesting if you pay attention to various types of type design and typography.

Were there any special experiences or memorable reactions from people while working?

I think of the project as a personal expression. I remember very well when several people contacted me to donate a certain amount of money as a thank you for sharing my work and to show their support by saying that they wanted to continue to see it. I politely declined and expressed my gratitude, but it was a special experience as a designer. After sharing my work on Instagram, some people actively tried to communicate with me, claiming to be fans of the poster. It was also a great learning experience for me to meet many people who like my design style and work. In addition, when foreigners who may not be familiar with the K-Pop genre responded by saying that they were able to 'understand the feeling of the song', I felt satisfaction and pride that I had achieved visual communication.

I'm curious about your attitude or perspective as a creator.

Since I am basically a calm and serious person, even when I am deep in thought, I try not to lose my humorous attitude or imagine something absurd. Here, the meaning of humor is not to make people laugh out loud, but rather to make them think in a different way. For example, it is to refresh their minds by thinking about absurd situations or absurd thoughts. When I try to convey my thoughts and expressions to others, I realized that it is difficult to communicate if I am in my own world, and my values and attitude changed while attending graduate school. My overall attitude toward life as a creator and designer has become lighter than before. By intentionally reducing the excessive, I naturally accepted that it is okay for the final expression to be light.

When do you feel the greatest joy as a creator?

I think it’s when there are people who respect and support me as a designer. A designer’s job is not like an artist who just creates what they want, but rather a job where interaction is very important because they have to check people’s reactions. I feel happy when there are people who like my work and design style. It also gives me energy to continue my creative activities. I create interesting work with the support of those around me, and I feel that the support of many people is the driving force behind creating new work. Thanks to the presence of people who recognize the value of my work, I now not only enjoy creating, but also feel great joy and happiness in the process of communicating with those who wait for my work.

I'm curious about what difficulties you've faced as a creator in Korea and how you overcame them.

It's been quite some time since I started working as a designer who does creative work. Looking back, I feel that the common sense that things can be done somehow is correct. There are always difficulties, and they are just different types, but there are always painful parts. However, if you define yourself as a creator, you feel pressured to continue to produce and achieve results. This usually causes mental distress. I think that if you just do what you want to do little by little, it will accumulate and create depth, and later on, you will receive the title of creator from others. That's why I think you should let go of the idea of being a creator and free yourself from the burden and suffering. After that, if you change your mindset and move forward steadily, I believe you can overcome difficulties one by one.

Nappa, Crush, 2019 © jun.playlist

I have naturally accepted that it is okay for the final expression to be light, intentionally reducing the excessive. Thanks to the existence of people who recognize the value of my work, I now feel great joy and happiness not only in the joy of making, but also in the process of communicating with those who have been waiting for my work. I have naturally accepted that it is okay for the final expression to be light, intentionally reducing the excessive. Thanks to the existence of people who recognize the value of my work, I now feel great joy and happiness not only in the joy of making, but also in the process of communicating with those who have been waiting for my work.

Please share your 'perseverance' know-how with creators who want to continue the activities they love.

The biggest driving force that allowed me to continue the project was 'not thinking of holding on'. If I think of holding on, I feel like a passive person. If there is something I like, I do it, and if not, I don't do it. That's why I think it's important to do personal projects that come from my own will in the middle of work. Thanks to doing the things I like and satisfying my personal desires, I was able to finish the things I didn't want to do but had to do.

Lastly, please tell us what you would like to say.

I am happy to be able to introduce the project to more people through this interview. Although it started out of personal interest, I hope that ‹jun.playlist› will be a chance to discover new songs in the K-Pop genre and a fun experience to listen to music. If you visit the archive website, you can find information about the fonts I used to make the posters. I hope it will be helpful to those who are curious about the details. I recently started a new series. It is an interesting work, so please visit my Instagram account.

Artist

Hong Jun-ki is a design artist based in Seoul and New York. He is interested in experimenting with the relationship between the shape changes of letters and the readability, and he produces new works by incorporating this into branding and identity design. After graduating from Konkuk University’s Department of Communication Design and California Institute of the Arts’ Master’s in Graphic Design, he started working in New York, and is currently working on various projects in the field of graphic design in Korea.

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