This lettering responds to the 2024 martial law crisis in South Korea. The Hangul strokes morph into dynamic, ascending flames, capturing the kinetic energy of collective resistance. Beyond aesthetics, this work reflects a designer’s responsibility: How can visual language amplify social truth? By visualizing the raw power of fire, it transforms a political outcry into a symbolic beacon, proving that design must actively participate in defending democracy.

I worked on a project that treated a media wall as an analog photo frame, reinterpreting its content as portrait images. Using video-editing grids and blue screen as motifs, I built a structured frame system. The iPhone camera UI and selection markers suggest a repetitive motion that evokes portrait capture, while the video test pattern colors reflect the media wall’s display qualities.

This Korean lettering literally means had it been easy, I wouldn’t be resting. It implies a play on words centered on the linguistic nuance of the Korean language. The terms for ‘it was easy’ (She-wot-eum) and ‘I rested’ (She-eot-eum) sound almost indistinguishable, yet their realities are worlds apart. This lettering challenges the social tendency to label unemployment as a choice to ‘rest,’ delivering a sharp retort: employment would never have been ‘rested’ if it had only been ‘easy’ enough.

The project translates traditional Korean window lattices into a modular Latin typeface. Rooted in the designer’s experience of growing up outside of Korea, the project visualizes a hybridized identity. Challenging Seoul’s isolating concrete apartments, the historical Chang Ho (window+door of traditional Korean architecture) acts as a translucent filter. By deconstructing the Wanjasal pattern, an ancient architectural philosophy becomes a modern communication tool for the cross-cultural mind.

The System 2022 series is a graphic experimentation work by designer Daeki Shim.

The System 2022 series is a graphic experimentation work by designer Daeki Shim.

The System 2022 series is a graphic experimentation work by designer Daeki Shim.

The System 2022 series is a graphic experimentation work by designer Daeki Shim.

The System 2022 series is a graphic experimentation work by designer Daeki Shim.

The System 2022 series is a graphic experimentation work by designer Daeki Shim.

The System 2022 series is a graphic experimentation work by designer Daeki Shim.

The System 2022 series is a graphic experimentation work by designer Daeki Shim.

The System 2022 series is a graphic experimentation work by designer Daeki Shim.

The System 2022 series is a graphic experimentation work by designer Daeki Shim.

The System 2022 series is a graphic experimentation work by designer Daeki Shim.

The System 2022 series is a graphic experimentation work by designer Daeki Shim.

Created for Frisketch’s artist event Um, this project includes a poster and promotional calendar. The design is inspired by spontaneous graphic scores drawn by the audience while listening to pianist Yeonjoon Yoon’s upright piano improvisation. These collected marks become a large visual score, then reinterpreted through live performance. Translating sound into image and image back into sound, the work visualizes circulating energy, while Um suggests the moment of new growth and emergence.

This project explores the Greek maxim “Know Thyself” through the lens of Korean typography and the tactile medium of oil paint. By weaving together the philosophical lineages of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle—from the Athenian Academia to contemporary social engagement—the work visualizes the enduring connection between ancient Western thought and modern Eastern aesthetics. It is a material reflection on the evolution of consciousness, architecture, and the social role of the intellectual.

‘Blue Water Bottle’ is an encyclopedic book project exploring how an ordinary object can generate many interpretations. Though the phrase seems specific, each person imagines a different bottle shaped by personal experience. The book examines blue as color, water as property, and bottle as form through poems, essays, images, and archives. Its typeface was created by focusing on letterforms while drawing without looking at the paper, producing distorted shapes like objects seen through water.

“Leave Me” is a song by Did You Know Robin Was A Rabbit?, a band with a whimsical, fairytale-like name. In contrast, the track carries a strong traditional trot sensibility, creating a striking irony.
The poster visualizes this contrast by combining a rose-pattern wallpaper—an iconic element of Korean retro design—with digital gradient effects, emphasizing a hybrid of opposing aesthetics.

For 40 years, Seoul’s subway map grew without redesign — lines multiplied, complexity deepened, and no one rewrote the visual language. Eun Sun Kwon changed that. As Public Design Director of Seoul Metropolitan Government, she led a complete overhaul of the map covering 23 lines and 624 stations: redefining information hierarchy, rebuilding the color system for accessibility, and giving Seoul a typographic identity it had never had. Winner of Red Dot Design Award 2024.

As the age of artificial intelligence unfolds, what position will artists come to occupy within it? Imagining them as pioneers who step boldly into an as-yet-unrealized future, this work renders their journey through myth-like imagery. In doing so, it seeks to act as an observer, capturing a single moment in the path of these pioneers.

“Sold my Seoul” is a play on the city’s official tagline “Seoul My Seoul” and draws attention to the destruction of historically valuable neighborhoods that have the “transitional” style of architecture defined by low-rise brick buildings with the traditional Hanok tiled roofs. Along with the redevelopment, independent shops, like the mart depicted here, are also being erased. The drawing was created from physical observation and the typefaces are Teddy and Blazeface forged by Minjoo Ham.

Identity Design for ACC Creators 2025 Residency
The 2025 theme of the Creators Residency at the Asia Culture Center, Gwangju is “The Age of Intelligence.” This work envisions an image that acts as a form of applause for artists shaping this era. It draws inspiration from the moment a film begins—when a weighty title appears, hinting at a vast narrative unfolding alongside a grand, cinematic score.