Sun in the sky, Ji Sun Lee

Monday, April 21, 2008

The Kitsch in Korea

In Korea, middle of 1990’, several designers started to discuss “The Kitsch” because Korean design was changing gradually by effects of Japanese culture. Most Korean teenagers preferred to read Japanese magazines and cartoons at that time. Japanese culture was a main trend in Korea. The bright colors, old fashion styles, and humorous Kitsch design icons in magazines and cartoons were every popular among teenager. In this period, Japanese design also copied and recreated from western design for example “Rolling Stone” in USA and “The Face” magazine in England. The Japanese Kitsch design directly affected variety Korean products such as notes, t-shirts, and magazines. Moreover, some Korean designer started to create Koreanized Kitsch designs. One Korean designer made very funny Kitsch design which was new version illustration using an old elementary school book. He used illustrations which were in old elementary school books and added funny and humorous caption. It was very successful and many design followed this design style. They chose theme images from 1950’s to 1970’s and reproduced that to modern style. The Kitsch design was a main code of Korean culture until late of 1990’s.