Seoul Kimchi Festival Rebrand

Kimchi has always been a staple not just in my everyday meals but in me and my family’s relationship. Whenever we had large gatherings for the holidays, we never strayed from adding kimchi to our dinner table. I especially fancied the thin cut pieces of radish without the leaf of the nappa cabbage that I called “baby kimchi.” My older cousins or uncles and aunt would seek out all the baby kimchi to the bottom of the glass container just to put on my plate.

With these special moments I have tied to kimchi, I know that something as simple and small as a fermented cabbage side dish has a great impact on bringing people together, which is why I wanted to rebrand an event around kimchi. I wanted to channel my nostalgia and personal taste into a refreshing and pleasing visual identity. I wanted to make something that essentially would make people feel the way I feel when I eat kimchi with my family.

It didn’t take me too long to learn about the Seoul Kimchi Festival, yet I was quite shocked I didn’t hear of it sooner. The festival is a three day event held every year for citizens and foreigners interested in learning how to make kimchi. This process is known as kimjang, is traditionally made in large quantities following a seasonal cycle and requiring a labor or love. All of the kimchi made throughout the festival then gets delivered to underprivileged families affected by the pandemic. The festival originated as a solution to the growing number of people living alone in Korea who could not finish a whole batch of kimchi if they made it on their own and would not to make it alone. As thousands of people make kimchi together, they also share new memories and new kimchi. Similar to how kimchi was made to preserve vegetables over the harsh winter by fermenting them, the festival was made to preserve the tradition of large families making a lot of kimchi together to enjoy together.

I looked into the varying ingredients, equipment, anatomy, history, popularity, and social standards surrounding kimchi, which led me into the main conflict I had throughout this entire process. Do I design a visual system that is more organic or more geometric? I personally lean towards geometric designs and thought this project would be a good opportunity to show how I can show my creativity with more organic form because of the way the nappa cabbage is fermented and broken down to bend and move fluidly. However, I couldn’t help but draw my eyes back towards the geometric pattern the people in the festival make when they are all lined up in rows wearing the same aprons and gloves, as if they are all the same elements compartmentalized into an existing whole. This zoomed out image alone made me generate more geometric designs over organic. It was also interesting to experiment with how modular the Korean Hangeul language was as well and how I could apply that to my potential logo mark.

I ended up looping back into my research phase, switching between going organic and then geometric and then back to organic. I couldn’t help but wonder what new letterforms could look dynamic with a more organic shape or more cohesive with a more modular shape.

I ended up with two final iterations. Both center around the way I designed the “K” in kimchi. I wanted to let the legs of this letterform depict the way pieces of the kappa cabbage split from the core and can be cut into the bite size pieces presented on a plate. The two legs could either move curved, parallel, concaved, or conveyed. The organic choice shows the two legs curved parallel with a modulated stroke to feel more dynamic. From the foundation of a thick vertical line and two modulated curves, I created the rest of the letterforms in “kimchi.” I did the same with the geometric choice, but the foundation of the design was one thick vertical line and only one thick arch. It could be repeated and reflected to make a semicircle as well as a sprout that made up the k. To allow the organic form to stand out, I chose a thin script font that could soften the harsh edges and feel more personal, as if someone was signing the logo the way people at the festival left their own mark with making the kimchi. To allow the geometric form to feel complementary, I chose a more display font that mimicked the knife cutouts of the kimchi and break up the solid blocks.

I decided to choose the geometric choice because the logo mark should focus on the festival itself rather than kimchi itself, or else it could be seen as any other kimchi festival. What made this festival special or apart from other events is the endless rows and blocks of people. The organic choice also felt too similar to the cliche calligraphic typefaces already existing in Asian groceries. In order to give more variation and interest to the logo mark, I played around with separating the arch and vertical line by having empty fill or having a white line in the center of the block to suggest the veins of the nappa cabbage. I used the arch as a base for the icons and patterns as well. When making the website, I wanted to add a lot of color and life to show the positive energy of the people in the festival. I expanded on the idea of knife cuts with thin lines either feeling more geometric or dynamic in the space.

After looking back at this project, I realized I never fully returned to the idea of it being bilingual, which is a shame. I wasn’t confident in making everything bilingual because I am not fluent, but I would like to see a bilingual logo mark more fleshed out at least. I also wanted to incorporate the primary typeface more into my design, but I would need to create the entire alphabet on robofont, which did not fit into my time schedule for this project. After receiving crit on my final presentation, I will also consider the legibility of the “H” in the logomark as well as letting the design of the primary typeface speak for itself.

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