Jaemin Lee & Woogyung Geel / studio fnt
graphic design for folk culture exhibition ‘Flower of Salt’
The National Folk Museum of Korea
graphic design for folk culture exhibition ‘Flower of Salt’
graphic design for folk culture exhibition ‘Flower of Salt’
Poster, banners, and invitations for the special exhibition in the National Folk Museum of Korea, presented all about salt; from how to make salt to how it influenced the human lives.
2. The Brief: Summarize the problem you set out to solve. What was the context for the project, and what was the challenge posed to you?The exhibitions of The National Folk Museum of Korea focuses on special relics in general. So in pasts representative photographs were the key elements in design. But in this special exhibition the main subjects were salt and its folktales. As the key subject became more abstract, a different design approach was needed.
3. The Intent: What point of view did you bring to the project, and were there additional criteria that you added to the brief?The lettering in Hangul, ‘Flower of Slat’, depicts the process of salt manufacture. Each unit was placed in a constructed rule to create a texture that after all represents a scene of pan field farm. The solid blue background defines the sea water and salts, which was also intended to depict the time of the exhibition, the most hot and humid summer in Korea.
4. The Process: Describe the rigor that informed your project. (Research, ethnography, subject matter experts, materials exploration, technology, iteration, testing, etc., as applicable.) What stakeholder interests did you consider? (Audience, business, organization, labor, manufacturing, distribution, etc., as applicable)The exhibition ‘Flower of Salt’, involves the annual event, ‘The Year of Jeonnam Folk Culture’. The curators personally went to Jeonnam and documented the interviews and research. Among many documentations, we were most impressed by the beautiful films and photographs of the process of how slats being made.
Considering domestic audience, it is common that folk arts and culture considered as old and jaded. It was important mission to mash-up the old and new and hopefully to gather more interests from domestic crowds.
The major audiences of the exhibition are the foreign crowds, who visits the museum to experience the Korean culture. Not only visually intriguing, we wanted them to be able to understand what the exhibition is about without knowing Hangul. And hopefully the image leaves the impression after watching the exhibition.
5. The Value: How does your project earn its keep in the world? What is its value? What is its impact? (Social, educational, economic, paradigm-shifting, sustainable, environmental, cultural, gladdening, etc.)Folk Museums and other traditional cultural exhibition have their cliches. Brush scripts, perfectly lighted photographs of special relics, rice paper texture, earthy color tone, simple serif typeface and etc. We wanted to avoid the usual methodology and mash-up the old and new. We proved that it is possible to represent Folk Culture using vibrant blue and bold san-serif typeface. The exhibition was a success and our work received great exposure. Our happy client called us in for their next biggest exhibition, a finale of 2011.
It’s a pleasure to see such a simple and straightforward design idea, expressed so effectively. – Kim Hyungjin
The strong typography conveys the message very clearly. It also shows an interesting treatment of Hangul, the Korean alphabet—raising a few traditionalists’ eyebrows, perhaps. – Kyungsun Kymn
The flowers of salt are blooming—in my mind. – Eunkyung Jeon