Korean media is on the rise across the globe and U.S. companies are starting to invest and create their own Korean content such as K-Pop and K-Movies. However, there's a lack of understanding and English resources on what defines modern South Korean design.

To combat this, K-Design: Fundamentals of Modern South Korean Design is a manual book that helps U.S. designers understand the difference between Korean and U.S. design by defining the three fundamentals that make up K-Design: artistic experimentation, evoking the senses, and se-ryeon.

The first K-Design fundamental is artistic experimentation. Modern Korean design began in the 1980s and is a short 40 years old. As a result Korea doesn't have well-established rules in design like America. They're unafraid to experiment with wild ideas and nothing has to be a certain way.

The second fundamental is evoking the senses. Korea is a Confucius society. Therefore there's a heavy emphasis on morals and being disciplined, so it's cathartic for Koreans when the designs are experiential and evoke all five senses.

The third fundamental is se-ryeon, a Korean word meaning new, clean, and sophisticated that defines good K-Design. Se-ryeon is a complicated word that doesn't have an English equivalent, but it's a word that perfectly expresses what Koreans value in design. Korea, being a small nation between two cultural giants of East Asia, has a history of new technology and ideas coming in and going out fast. As a result, Koreans gravitate towards freshly polished and sophisticatedly trendy designs.

The manual’s visual identity system was made to reflect these three K-Design fundamentals. I designed the manual to be experiential where users can engage with the book by decorating the book cover with rhinestone stickers and watching the videos or playing with the AR through the QR codes in the book. To properly represent the idea of se-ryeon and trendiness, I researched Korean design trends. At this time Korea was dipping its toes into early 2000s aesthetics after years of utilizing late 1990s nostalgia. I made a prediction that within the year Korea will largely feature 2000s designs such as visuals from The Matrix and Y2k fashion. As such I decided to make cyberspace and rhinestones the main two components of the manual’s identity, both in its visuals and writing tone. The black and violet conjure up images of the deep dark cyberspace and images in the manual book are placed in what looks like internet browsers. In order to create a refined look and freshen up what could look like a stale copy of cyberspace visuals, Y2K rhinestone patterns were added.

The typeface Favorit by Dinamo was chosen for its geometric, computer-like look and its availability in both English and Korean.

Overall, this thesis project helped me understand my identity as a Korean-American designer and how studying historical and cultural contexts allow us to make proper analyses and create authentic work.