LEE GEON MAAN (영문)

Placing Hangeul in Tokyo, Japan
There is a designer who is fighting against Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada and other foreign luxury brand by converging ‘Hangeul’ with design: LEE GEON MAAN (51/CEO of LEE GEON MAAN AnF). Lee is a representative Hangeul designer who has been designing with motif of Hangeul in the world fashion and design market with designer Sangbong Lee. On the 26th of September, I met Lee in his Hangeul design off, ‘LEE GEON MAAN AnF,’ in Buam-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, near the Jahamun tunnel. LEE GEON MAAN’s Hangeul designs, in which the consonants and vowels of Hangeul are visualized, are considered to be the most Korean designs by the overseas designers. Currently, Lee is working on the ‘Hangeul product designs’ by applying his Hangeul patterns on neckties, scarfs, wallets, bags and other fashion items. “The unique beauty of Hangeul does not fall behind those of western alphabets for the Chinese characters. Some says Hangeul is much more beautiful in aesthetic aspects.” He said, “In the designs of drawings, sculptures and even daily items, Hangeul is the best material that has the perfect beauty of balance and aesthetics.” “Alphabets and Japanese characters are the ‘alignment characters’ which are aligned to form words. Chinese characters are often referred in terms of its aesthetic and visualized beauty for the fact that they originate from pictures of objects. Yet in terms of designs, Chinese characters are not much different from alphabets or Japanese characters. They are all alignment characters that can only convey meanings when aligned in a line. Those characters are very simple elements, from which the beauty cannot be easily found when the characters leave the certain ‘alignment,’ from a visual and artistic perspective.” Hangeul, the Best Design Element LEE GEON MAAN described Hangeul to be the perfect ‘compound characters,’ that is different from alphabets, Japanese characters and Chinese characters “Hangeul is like ‘Lego blocks.’ You can freely arrange the elements including the basic arrangement in a line and the combination of its compositions in all directions. It does not bound you to simply combine a couple of compositions together. It is the only written language in the world that can form meaningful words by combining 3 or more compositions together. Such compounded letters of Hangeul reflects a beautifully constructed building. It has the perfect beauty of the balance and aesthetics.” LEE GEON MAAN said, “Hangeul does not only has the beauty of the balance and aesthetics, but also has the beauty of harmony and nature, which is beyond the imagination of human beings, in the process of compounding the components.” And he said that such beauty of harmony and nature is what makes Hangeul the top material in the international fashion and design industries. Lee described the ‘beauty of harmony’ in Hangeul using ‘monogram’ (visualization of one larger image by combining two or more characters). “Have a look at Louis Vuitton. They made a unique symbol by combining L and V of alphabets. Yet, because of the aligning characteristic of alphabets, there is a limitation for them to create various monogram designs with the two letters. In other words, the designs are imaginable and expectable. The monogram of Channel, which has 2 alphabet Cs overlapped in the opposite directions, is another design that can be easily thought of.” He explained the strength of Hangeul as a design element in comparison to alphabets. “Hangeul allows you to combine each composition of ‘ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ …, ㅏ, ㅑ, ㅓ, ㅕ …’ as alphabet does. Yet, it also allows you to combine each letter like 가, 나, 다, etc. Such combinations make it possible to form compounds and images that are beyond the imaginations. In other words, Hangeul is the only written language that can be made into unpredictably creative designs. Moreover, Hangeul forms each word by combining ‘consonants and vowels,’ meaning that it has the characteristics of monogram itself. Each character that is used in the everyday life is the most natural monogram itself. Such beauty of nature and harmony of Hangeul is the strong attraction point of Hangeul, which makes it special compared to all other written languages.” In the international fashion and design market, Hangeul is, in fact, is not yet receiving as much spotlight as alphabets or Japanese and Chinese characters do. He implies that no matter how perfect Hangeul is as a design element, we don’t have enough production and infrastructures thereof to present it to the world. He described, “It is not an easy job for an individual to achieve.” “Hangeul design as an art work is a totally different matter from Hangeul design on products and items for many unspecified individual targets. Making art out of Hangeul can be sufficiently achieve by an individual’s efforts, but in order to apply the design on various products to release in the market a huge capital is required. All processes of product development, marketing, promotion and even sales absolute require the power of capital.” Here, he pointed out that there is a ‘lack of capital to be invested in producing Hangeul designed items and in growing the Hangeul brand.’ It is because, from the perspective of major corporations with capital power, bringing in luxury brands from France and Italy with Western designs is much easier than ‘growing brands and designs that use Hangeul.’ “The major corporate can easily make money without spending on marketing, promotion or product development if it imports foreign brands with designs of western languages. Yet, those items are strictly bounded within the domestic markets. Since they are not product of ours, there is no way for the domestic corporations to sell French and Italian brands in Japan or China. I wish they could view the market with a broader perspectives.” Regarding the ‘investment in Hangeul,’ Lee said, “It allows us to have a proper ‘Korean brand,’ which we have been desiring for. It could be the most powerful weapon for use to go beyond this small domestic markets to enter the vast international markets.” 13 Years Solely on Hangeul Designs It has been 13 years since designer LEE GEON MAAN started working on Hangeul. Until the age of 38, he used be a pure artist and an adjunct professor, who opened 6 personal exhibitions and 200 group exhibitions. Lee had been dreaming of being a good artist and a good professor for 18 years from his entering into the school of arts in Hongik University until he has in late 30s. “I thought the more I present decent arts, I would become an excellent artist and also naturally become a professor in my alma mater. Yet, I could not remove the title of adjunct professor.” His life of adjunct professor was insufficient for him to focus on the artistic activities nor to find financial stability. Finally in 1999, he gave up on his dream of being an artist. “In 2000 I had sold all my working equipment. I had to make money for living. All I could do was arts and design, so I decided to find a way in the field. So I started commercial designs.” This decision was the beginning of his life as a Hangeul designer. “During the course for master’s degree in overseas, my research topic was ‘culture.’ My first design with this motif was not Hangeul, but was ‘colored stripe necktie.’ It did not attract much attentions. Fortunately, one of my older alumni visited from the central museum and saw the fabric with Hangeul patterns, which I created to find a concept. With that item, he suggested me to ‘open up an event.’ He asked me to make a ‘simple necktie,’ which he displayed in the central museum as a Korean culture item.” It was the moment of change in his life. Many foreigners showed great interest in his designs with consonants and vowels of Hangeul. “I was fascinated. Until then, I could only make less than 500,000 won from 200 group exhibitions and 6 personal exhibitions in 18 years. But just because the necktie was receiving positive responses, the central museum offered me over 1 million won for the design. Also the museum requested for other samples of the Hangeul neckties to be displayed in the ‘Special Korean Culture Exhibition.’ They even suggested me to sell those items instead of only displaying them on exhibitions.” He answered positively unless he could sell the items under the name of ‘LEE GEON MAAN.’ Then in an instant, he made sales over billions of won. “That was when I made my mind to start a business. I went to see the managers of department stores to show them my neckties, bags and wallets with Hangeul designs. Yet, they have suggested me to open a store in duty free shops instead of the department stores, since the items seem to be more appealing to the foreigners than Koreans. By the virtue of the suggestions, my Hangeul designs were first introduced to the foreigners than to the Korean consumers.” As his designs were sold more and more in duty free shops, the name LEE GEON MAAN started to be recognized by the people and designers in the overseas fashion brand. Now, after over 10 years, his Hangeul designs are highly recognized as the most Korean designs that represent the Korean culture by the designers of overseas fashion industries. Hangeul Items Enter Tokyo Market To a question asking for the reason why LEE GEON MAAN insists on Hangeul as his design motif he answered, “Because I want to make a ‘Korean brand’ that shows the history and story of our nation.” He added, “Hangeul is what represents Korea and Korean people only with its visual images, without additional descriptions.” This is the reason why he is living as a Hangeul designer. In the past February, LEE GEON MAAN opened his brand store in a 토브 department store in Tokyo, Japan. The Hangeul designs have finally entered the heart of Japan. It is extremely difficult for even a major Korean fashion brand to open a store in a department store in Japan and LEE GEON MAAN is the first one to do so. “I would have made more money and introduce the Hangeul design to a lot more people if I entered a country like China first. Yet, I thought the first enter of Hangeul designs in a foreign market must be in Japan. It was the Japanese people who banned us from using our language and letters about 80~90 years ago. How pleasurable is it to display the Hangeul design products that has our letters and cultures?” Reference: http://weekly.chosun.com/client/news/viw.asp?nNewsNumb=002226100027&ctcd=C09

Placing Hangeul in Tokyo, Japan

There is a designer who is fighting against Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada and other foreign luxury brand by converging ‘Hangeul’ with design: LEE

GEON MAAN (51/CEO of LEE GEON MAAN AnF). Lee is a representative Hangeul designer who has been designing with motif of Hangeul in

the world fashion and design market with designer Sangbong Lee. On the 26th of September, I met Lee in his Hangeul design off, ‘LEE GEON

MAAN AnF,’ in Buam-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, near the Jahamun tunnel.

LEE GEON MAAN’s Hangeul designs, in which the consonants and vowels of Hangeul are visualized, are considered to be the most Korean

designs by the overseas designers. Currently, Lee is working on the ‘Hangeul product designs’ by applying his Hangeul patterns on neckties,

scarfs, wallets, bags and other fashion items.

“The unique beauty of Hangeul does not fall behind those of western alphabets for the Chinese characters. Some says Hangeul is much more

beautiful in aesthetic aspects.”

He said, “In the designs of drawings, sculptures and even daily items, Hangeul is the best material that has the perfect beauty of balance and

aesthetics.”

“Alphabets and Japanese characters are the ‘alignment characters’ which are aligned to form words. Chinese characters are often referred in

terms of its aesthetic and visualized beauty for the fact that they originate from pictures of objects. Yet in terms of designs, Chinese characters

are not much different from alphabets or Japanese characters. They are all alignment characters that can only convey meanings when aligned

in a line. Those characters are very simple elements, from which the beauty cannot be easily found when the characters leave the certain

‘alignment,’ from a visual and artistic perspective.”

Hangeul, the Best Design Element

LEE GEON MAAN described Hangeul to be the perfect ‘compound characters,’ that is different from alphabets, Japanese characters and

Chinese characters “Hangeul is like ‘Lego blocks.’ You can freely arrange the elements including the basic arrangement in a line and the

combination of its compositions in all directions. It does not bound you to simply combine a couple of compositions together. It is the only

written language in the world that can form meaningful words by combining 3 or more compositions together. Such compounded letters of

Hangeul reflects a beautifully constructed building. It has the perfect beauty of the balance and aesthetics.”

LEE GEON MAAN said, “Hangeul does not only has the beauty of the balance and aesthetics, but also has the beauty of harmony and nature,

which is beyond the imagination of human beings, in the process of compounding the components.” And he said that such beauty of harmony

and nature is what makes Hangeul the top material in the international fashion and design industries.

Lee described the ‘beauty of harmony’ in Hangeul using ‘monogram’ (visualization of one larger image by combining two or more characters).

“Have a look at Louis Vuitton. They made a unique symbol by combining L and V of alphabets. Yet, because of the aligning characteristic of

alphabets,

there is a limitation for them to create various monogram designs with the two letters. In other words, the designs are imaginable and

expectable. The monogram of Channel, which has 2 alphabet Cs overlapped in the opposite directions, is another design that can be easily

thought of.”

He explained the strength of Hangeul as a design element in comparison to alphabets.

“Hangeul allows you to combine each composition of ‘ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ …, ㅏ, ㅑ, ㅓ, ㅕ …’ as alphabet does. Yet, it also allows you to combine

each letter like 가, 나, 다, etc. Such combinations make it possible to form compounds and images that are beyond the imaginations. In other

words, Hangeul is the only written language that can be made into unpredictably creative designs. Moreover, Hangeul forms each word by

combining ‘consonants and vowels,’ meaning that it has the characteristics of monogram itself. Each character that is used in the everyday life

is the most natural monogram itself. Such beauty of nature and harmony of Hangeul is the strong attraction point of Hangeul, which makes it

special compared to all other written languages.”

In the international fashion and design market, Hangeul is, in fact, is not yet receiving as much spotlight as alphabets or Japanese and

Chinese characters do. He implies that no matter how perfect Hangeul is as a design element, we don’t have enough production and

infrastructures thereof to present it to the world. He described, “It is not an easy job for an individual to achieve.”

“Hangeul design as an art work is a totally different matter from Hangeul design on products and items for many unspecified individual targets.

Making art out of Hangeul can be sufficiently achieve by an individual’s efforts, but in order to apply the design on various products to release

in the market a huge capital is required. All processes of product development, marketing, promotion and even sales

absolute require the power of capital.”

Here, he pointed out that there is a ‘lack of capital to be invested in producing Hangeul designed items and in growing the Hangeul brand.’ It is because, from the perspective of major corporations with capital power, bringing in luxury brands from France and Italy with Western designs

is much easier than ‘growing brands and designs that use Hangeul.’

“The major corporate can easily make money without spending on marketing, promotion or product development if it imports foreign brands

with designs of western languages. Yet, those items are strictly bounded within the domestic markets. Since they are not product of ours, there

is no way for the domestic corporations to sell French and Italian brands in Japan or China. I wish they could view the market with a broader

perspectives.”

Regarding the ‘investment in Hangeul,’ Lee said, “It allows us to have a proper ‘Korean brand,’ which we have been desiring for. It could be

the most powerful weapon for use to go beyond this small domestic markets to enter the vast international markets.”

13 Years Solely on Hangeul Designs

It has been 13 years since designer LEE GEON MAAN started working on Hangeul. Until the age of 38, he used be a pure artist and an adjunct

professor, who opened 6 personal exhibitions and 200 group exhibitions. Lee had been dreaming of being a good artist and a good professor

for 18 years from his entering into the school of arts in Hongik University until he has in late 30s.

“I thought the more I present decent arts, I would become an excellent artist and also naturally become a professor in my alma mater. Yet, I

could not remove the title of adjunct professor.”

His life of adjunct professor was insufficient for him to focus on the artistic activities nor to find financial stability. Finally in 1999, he gave up on his dream of being an artist.

“In 2000 I had sold all my working equipment. I had to make money for living. All I could do was arts and design, so I decided to find a way in

the field. So I started commercial designs.”

This decision was the beginning of his life as a Hangeul designer. “During the course for master’s degree in overseas, my research topic was

‘culture.’ My first design with this motif was not Hangeul, but was ‘colored stripe necktie.’ It did not attract much attentions. Fortunately, one of

my older alumni visited from the central museum and saw the fabric with Hangeul patterns, which I created to find a concept. With that item,

he suggested me to ‘open up an event.’ He asked me to make a ‘simple necktie,’ which he displayed in the central museum as a Korean culture item.”

It was the moment of change in his life. Many foreigners showed great interest in his designs with consonants and vowels of Hangeul. “I was

fascinated. Until then, I could only make less than 500,000 won from 200 group exhibitions and 6 personal exhibitions in 18 years. But just

because the necktie was receiving positive responses, the central museum offered me over 1 million won for the design. Also the museum

requested for other samples of the Hangeul neckties to be displayed in the ‘Special Korean Culture Exhibition.’ They even suggested me to sell those items instead of only displaying them on exhibitions.”

He answered positively unless he could sell the items under the name of ‘LEE GEON MAAN.’ Then in an instant, he made sales over billions of

won.

“That was when I made my mind to start a business. I went to see the managers of department stores to show them my neckties, bags and

wallets with Hangeul designs. Yet, they have suggested me to open a store in duty free shops instead of the department stores, since the

items seem to be more appealing to the foreigners than Koreans. By the virtue of the suggestions, my Hangeul designs were first introduced to

the foreigners than to the Korean consumers.”

As his designs were sold more and more in duty free shops, the name LEE GEON MAAN started to be recognized by the people and designers

in the overseas fashion brand. Now, after over 10 years, his Hangeul designs are highly recognized as the most Korean designs that represent

the Korean culture by the designers of overseas fashion industries.

Hangeul Items Enter Tokyo Market

To a question asking for the reason why LEE GEON MAAN insists on Hangeul as his design motif he answered, “Because I want to make a

‘Korean brand’ that shows the history and story of our nation.”

He added, “Hangeul is what represents Korea and Korean people only with its visual images, without additional descriptions.” This is the

reason why he is living as a Hangeul designer. In the past February, LEE GEON MAAN opened his brand store in a 토브 department store in

Tokyo, Japan. The Hangeul designs have finally entered the heart of Japan. It is extremely difficult for even a major Korean fashion brand to

open a store in a department store in Japan and LEE GEON MAAN is the first one to do so.

“I would have made more money and introduce the Hangeul design to a lot more people if I entered a country like China first. Yet, I thought

the first enter of Hangeul designs in a foreign market must be in Japan. It was the Japanese people who banned us from using our language

and letters about 80~90 years ago. How pleasurable is it to display the Hangeul design products that has our letters and cultures?”

Reference: http://weekly.chosun.com/client/news/viw.asp?nNewsNumb=002226100027&ctcd=C09

PRESS