Words that come alive

• Published Oct 15, 2014 4:00 PM KST
• Updated Oct 15, 2014 4:00 PM KST

Hangeul calligrapher breathes life into letters

By Yun Suh-young

Hangeul may well not be considered beautiful in its visual form, but to foreigners, it’s a pretty fascinating writing system. Those who came to Korea to learn the language say hangeul is systematic, easy to learn, and what’s more, even beautiful.

A week has passed since the 568th anniversary of Hangeul Day on Oct.9, a national holiday to celebrate the creation of the Korean alphabet, but not many people know why the day is so significant or why it needs to be designated a national holiday.

The appreciation for hangeul among Koreans seem to lag behind that of foreigners, and the importance of having a good command of the language no longer seems to be a priority as competition is fierce over learning English.

Among efforts to raise the value of hangeul is the effort to beautify the letters to visually appeal to the global audience, let alone its home people.

Calligrapher Kang Byung-in is one who pioneers in the effort to “design” hangeul to communicate with the public. He is Korea’s most sought-after calligrapher whose works can be reached in our daily lives from “Chamisul” soju to the Seoul city logo.

Kang says his works are the result of “communicating with words.”

Hangeul calligraphy

“Calligraphy,” as pertaining to its Western meaning, refers to the act of drawing letters in an artistic form, usually with a fountain or ink pen.

In the Eastern world, what was translated as “calligraphy” in English had referred to an act of painting letters with an ink brush instead of a pen, which in Korea is called “seoye.”

Seoye is more of a traditional way of writing letters, slightly different from calligraphy, as it involves writing for delivering a message, not writing for an artistic purpose.

Only since a decade ago did calligraphy, as in the form of art, become a new trend.

It was a revolutionary attempt to draw Korean letters as if drawing art when Kang first began introducing his works back in the early 2000s.

“Traditional seoye artists considered me crazy for breaking the tradition of what they thought was calligraphy. They said I was ignoring the basics,” said Kang during an interview with W.

“But I knew that the only way to move forward was to create something new. It wasn’t an attempt to ignore the tradition. It was an urge for innovation.”

He added that the design industry, which he also had been a part of before he set foot into calligraphy, devalued hangeul saying it was ugly and useless as a design.

“I wanted to show the designers that hangeul could also be beautiful and be used as great patterns for design. I knew I could break the perception in 10 years,” he said.

Kang was right. Ten years passed, Kang’s calligraphy is everywhere ― from title logos of TV drama series to liquor bottles to companies’ brand logos.

The most noted ones, and also one of his favorites, are TV drama titles “King Sejong” and “Jeong Do-jeon” which recently ended with great success, and liquor brands “Chamisul” and “Hwayo” the latter of which saw sales increase after the logo design changed to hangeul calligraphy.

Philosophy

When Kang writes title logos for TV dramas, he analyzes the plot, puts himself into the producers’ and writers’ shoes and tries to come up with what matches the drama best.

When writing for products, he tries to understand the product best before coming up with a design concept. If it’s for a liquor brand, he drinks the product until he gets the feeling of what characteristic he should capture from it.

“The whole process involves empathizing. I immerse my feelings into the letters and words to portray them as I feel. Calligraphy is a condensed result of feelings. So you need to become one with the subject matter, dip your spirit into it and then express it in one stroke,” said Kang.

Some projects can end in an hour while others can take days or even weeks to complete. It depends on the subject and how much Kang can empathize with it. The writing itself doesn’t take long, says Kang, but if there’s a typo or if it doesn’t come out the way he expected, then he has to start over.

Because it is a result of careful contemplation, he advises his clients to hang the work for a few days in order to understand the intent of the artist before deciding whether they like it or not.

Motivation

Kang dipped his foot into calligraphy after encountering the works of Kim Jeong-hui (1786-1856), famed calligrapher of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910), when he was in middle school.

He started “seoye” as part of afterschool program when he was a sixth-grader but it was in middle school, when he read about Kim Jeong-hui in a textbook, that he decided to become like Kim. It was then that Kang came up with his pseudonym “Youngmook” (which he still uses) pledging he would forever live with ink as the name means.

Kang was a designer at an advertising company until 2001 but started a new career as professional calligrapher in 2002. Until then, calligraphy was just a hobby for him.

The decision to take up calligraphy for a living came during his trips to Japan in 1993 when he was in his 30s. He was exploring calligraphy in depth and was taken aback by the plethora of signs and advertisements using calligraphy. He wanted to adopt calligraphy for hangeul writing.

“I knew it was a challenge but no one had really done it seriously before. I tried writing outside of the box, emphasizing the meaning of the words. Then the images started coming to me,” said Kang.

“Hangeul is extremely scientific. By just moving the consonants and vowels, you can create any word. Inside that scientific system, I found art which is now the basis of my work.”

For instance, when writing the word “sotda” which means “to rise or soar” in Korean, the word has to convey the image of soaring, according to Kang.

“When writing the word sonamoo (pine tree), the consonant has a tree-like image. I try to stress that in the word. When writing the word choom (dance), the word must look like it’s dancing. The same goes for bom (spring). It should look like grass is sprouting. When writing ggot (flower), the letters should blossom. That’s the art of calligraphy,” he said.

“Just because Korean is based on phonetics, doesn’t mean it can’t be expressed visually. I try to visualize the meaning and the sound a word creates.”

Expanding globally

Kang’s dream is to make hangeul become globally recognized and hangeul calligraphy be used as inspiration for design works.

“Hangeul isn’t the most beautiful letter system in the world. But I believe if we create a beautiful form of it, then foreigners will also consider it beautiful,” said Kang.

He recalled a time when he taught calligraphy to a group of foreign ambassadors in Korea. Visualizing the words helped them learn hangeul more easily, according to Kang. The words as an image could communicate with even foreigners, he said.

He also hopes hangeul becomes a pattern for design.

There are efforts in the fashion industry to incorporate hangeul into the fashion items from notebooks to t-shirts, but just because hangeul is printed on them, doesn’t make them pieces of art, says Kang. They have to be “appealing enough to make people want to carry them.”

“I wish people all over the world would carry hangeul around in daily items. At the moment, I’m working on designing stationary with hangeul design which will be sold at the newly opened National Hangeul Museum. I’m also designing a hangeul café which will open in the underground space across from the statue of King Sejong in Gwanghwamun in February next year.”

In the long term, he wishes to collaborate with noted global fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton to create bags with hangeul prints.