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[ Needleleaf Designer, Broadleaf Designer ]
15 July 2023




How sharp should the message of an artist's work be? Culture criticism has been the principle of the Academy I graduated from. Due to such a way of education, the alumni’s works are usually political and judgemental. However, I am not a warlike person. Rather, I’m a person with strong entertainer characteristics. Of course, after entering the academy, my perspective and the attitude toward my work changed a lot. When I was a bachelor student learning crafts, I was more focusing on the unique sense of aesthetics related to daily life.

However, when I was in a master course studying ‘design’, which has much more expanded meaning than what it refers to in Korea, I was teached to have a critical perspective. I have somehow managed to adapt to the new attitude, but I still have difficulty figuring out how much of sharpness I should present within design as cultural criticism. Is it because I was born a person who doesn't like to fight and isn't good at saying sharp words?

My works don’t have a sharp edge. Both visually and content-wise. For me, a designer who is clear about what the person wants to point out and has a clear stance of critics feels like a coniferous tree. On the other hand, I tend to work like broadleaf trees that cover rather than stab, and round rather than sharpen. I stimulate the imagination rather than emphasize things, and hums rather than raps. What kind of tree do I want to, or should be? To compare it to biodiversity, both broad-leaved trees and coniferous trees are necessary and must be in harmony. Does my watery attitude really contribute to design diversity, or is it going to die out?