Speculative Graphics
- Date Created16 July 2025, 20:07
Project Period: June 2024 - June 2025 / Renewal in August 2025
Components: Paper box, Book binder, Printed booklets, Instruction brochure, Custom-made QR card, etc.
Production Period & Location: 1 month between March and April 2025, Seoul, Korea
Concept / Theme: An exploration of modular publishing and speculative reading through tactile interaction. The kit invites users to assemble their own narratives by navigating fragmented visual and printed elements.
Distribution: Launched at exMedia Lab, Filzengraben 8-10, exMedia Lab 4.03
The overall visualization concept for the binding project began with the motivation to create a design product closely connected to my daily lives. I started systematically photographing observations related to signs, colors, and signifiers in the ordinary places I visit regularly. These weren’t glamorous locations like department stores or white cube spaces, but rather everyday environments—subway stations, stationery stores, university, and city streets—where everyday visual communication takes place.
While writing the essays for the 11 chapters, I simultaneously planned the layout structure. Moving beyond simple personal essays, I incorporated various direct and indirect quotations, diverse references, and photos into the content. To accommodate these layered elements, I designed different paper types for each content role and had them printed on distinct physical papers.
To make the binder look like an actual commercial product, I also made a G-type Box and a Folding Carton. I aimed to emulate the various symbols and marks found on real paper boxes and printed them onto the packaging.
Furthermore, whenever one buys a product, there is always an instruction manual or guide. I believed my essay book also required this kind of brochure to increase the audience's understanding before they even opened the book, so I printed it as part of the kit.
The final output takes the form of a 'Scrapbook'—papers and cards that can be inserted into and removed from a binder. It is a flexible object that naturally inhabits various everyday environments: laid open on a desk, pinned to a wall, or carried in separate pieces. When the binder is opened, the playful visual effect of various papers mixed together creates an accessible, living archive. This design ensures the work remains open to future renewals and additions, existing as an adaptable presence in daily life rather than a closed, finished publication.
① The year-long process—from essay writing to binder and paper layout design, through to production and manufacturing—marked a significant departure from my previous practice. Working primarily in digital environments, I found it profoundly refreshing to engage with diverse physical materials and tactile qualities. This project also allowed me to articulate visual notions embedded within me through the medium of language, opening new dimensions of expression.
② Deconstructing the concept of the book through an experimental approach and creating an easily modifiable format required considerable effort, as each element demanded individual customization. However, undertaking this solo production and experiencing firsthand the complete journey of bringing a product into existence proved invaluable. The process offered not only technical insights but also a deeper understanding of how form, content, and materiality converge to create meaningful work.
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