Introducing myself is inevitable in order to continue the next sentence of the thesis. I was born in South Korea and grew up in Indonesia, spent some of my teenage years in South Korea before I moved to Portugal. My last stop, for now, is The Netherlands, where I am currently studying graphic design in the Hague. My identity seems to be very global and unclear at the same time but I am very much aware of the fact that my roots are South Korean whether I like it or not. Now I, as a graphic designer, want to re-discover my South Korean identity. After I chose graphic design as my future job I became increasingly interested in graphic design in my home country. Therefore, my topic is about Graphic Design in Korea. As a design student in the Hague, I am curious about how graphic design works in Korea.
The intention of this thesis is to understand how graphic design in Korea started, what the state of graphic design there is now, and what kind of graphic design they could need in the future. To be able to answer this I will firstly look into what the state of Korean Graphic Design is today. Their graphic design is not as developed as Dutch design, it has a much younger history which leads me to believe that there is a lot of unused potential. This leads me to the second question that needs to be answered: What kind of graphic designer does Korea need? Answering this is interesting both because it allows for speculation about the future of Korean design, but also because it is something that I as a Korean graphic designer might make use of. What kind of room is there for me to fill.
As a tool to understand the topic better I interviewed other Korean graphic designers who has taken their education abroad. Also, I focused on the reasons for going back, what they brought with them, and what this added to their work. What is that makes them return? This is what leads to the last question to answer: What is the difference between Korean graphic design and the other country’s graphic design? Can it even be called Korean graphic design? What is the difference in design between graphic designers who studied abroad and graphic designers who were only based in South Korea.
To help drive my research I will use Korean graphic design history, as well as existing Korean design such as typefaces, printed matter etc. to compare with what I already know from Dutch design. The goal of the thesis is to answer the question: When is it best for me to go back to Korea, considering my education and potential for work?