As an intern for the UC Davis Design Museum this quarter, I've experienced a unique opportunity to peer into the behind the scenes of creating, handling, and installing the typographic art of Phill Choo and Hyanju Lee. This has given me a chance to observe the design and content of the exhibit in great detail.
Let's start with the space.
The wall colors are graphic---navy blue and stark white. The blue primarily houses the work of Phil Choo-whose large posters are graphical and bold by nature and minimal in color. The white walls house the work of Hyanju Lee; her bright and colorful pieces pop from the neutral backsplash. The lighting is dim, the emphasis shines on the work softly. The work of both artists is driven by Hangul , the native script of Korea (one that is very popular in pop culture). They manipulate and use letterforms to mimic animals and express metaphors, songs, and even moods that tie to their Korean heritage and culture.
One piece that is particularly intriguing to a “foreigner” observing Korean work is Phil Choo’s “Dream of a Goose”. Here he has strategically transformed the letter forms of Hangul to create the image of, well.... a goose. This effect deepens layers of meaning: the viewer is visualizing the image of the animal *and* reading about the story of the goose that is so engrained into the Korean culture through the words placed in the image. The visual hierarchy of characters (smaller letters in the background) suggests the presence and existence of space. The dark and muted color scheme of images, letters, and words (signs) contrasted with the negative space of the stark white background visually isolates the image, it seems dreamlike and far away from reality. The shapes and varying opacities of the forms give the overall appearance of movement, the goose is flying away.
*image courtesy of Phil Choo
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