'Record & CD Fair in Seoul' is the first domestic sale event to embody record lables, musicians and music fans. Our project was to art direct the visual language and graphics in the whole event including teaser and main posters, banners, postcards, fliers, web banners, leaflets, signage and etc.

In United States, as the biggest market in the music industry, Vinyl records are still being produced and its market is still growing. In 1991 United States hit the best selling records of Vinyl records in the history of all time. Even though the sales growth went down to 10% in 2010, this year the sales went up to 40% and expect to see 400 million record sales at the end of the year. Empowered by this situation, three underground record labels united to bring a new wave in the domestic music market. The main design challenge was to appeal the new audience while making old fans happy. While maintaining the retro look of the vinyl records, the design output has to be contemporary enough to attract the young audience. As Korean music industry is having hard time, even considered as being collapsed, another challenge was to manage the project with the extremely low budget.

The event brings many different vendors and it was important the main graphics to be strong enough to withhold the individual labels. Without much twist we simply used a solid black of Vinyl Record as a graphic motif. It also helped us to minimize the cost of production (by using just one black color for printing), killing two birds with one stone.

ROUND & ROUND, curator of this event, is the united organization of three underground record labels. We have been creating CD jackets and promotional posters for them and kept our partnership for a long time. For this event, 'Record & CD Fair in Seoul', not only we participated in a simple design solution but we also played a role to design the event as a whole. It was a big party hosted by and for music lovers. Record Store Day in United States (www.recordstoreday.com) and Mega Record & CD Fair in Netherlands (www.recordplanet.nl) are such events that are similar. To create our own identity of 'Record & CD Fair in Seoul', we interviewed few record shop owners and people related. With fruitful conversations and enthusiastic responses we managed to come up with a solution that can embody their individual tastes.

In one day two thousands of music lovers came and partied in 'Record & CD Fair in Seoul'. It raised hope for the domestic record labels and vendors. This time there will be performances, showcases and more diverse programs. Beyond a sales event, 'Record & CD Fair in Seoul' will give people a rare chance to gather together, share and find out hope for the future of music industry.