Summer in Seoul

A semi-passion, semi-required, cumulative project of my time in Seoul, South Korea during the summer of 2023. Follow along on my journey of studying abroad in South Korea for six weeks, through 10 postcards that encapsulate my experiences with creativity and life at a home away from home.

ROLE
Graphic Designer

TIMELINE
Jun 2023 - Aug 2023
(6 Weeks)

SKILLS
Graphic Design

TOOLS
Adobe Creative Suite
Fujifilm Disposable Camera
My Sketchbook :)

ENTRY 001: HOW IT STARTED

To begin this story, I must share how everything fell into place. In pursuit of new experiences, I applied to a summer study abroad program at Yonsei University on a whim, and luckily enough I got in! The hard part was convincing my parents to attend but to my surprise, they agreed to let me go through with it.

A busy city street scene with cars, buses, and tall buildings. There is a blue overhead street sign with Korean and English directions, trees lining the sidewalk, and a lamppost. The sky is clear and blue.

Practicing my reading skills as I explore the streets in the daytime.

View of a grocery store entrance with a large yellow sign that reads 'GROCERY STORE K' and a smaller blue stripe with instructions to choose a keyword sticker. Inside the store, a sign reads 'Find the keyword sticker'. A woman with dark hair in a ponytail, wearing a white shirt and a blue cap, is walking past the store entrance.

Finding inspiration in my natural encounters with primary colors.

Inside a subway train with passengers seated, some wearing masks, looking at their phones. Overhead handrails with black handles and several advertisements and route maps displayed on the wall behind the passengers. The floor has blue and gray sections.

Experiencing South Korea’s public transportation system.

 

The rest of my school year zoomed by and soon I was left with one week to pack my life away into 2 luggages. Most importantly, I brought with me: my trusty film camera, my plethora of tiny sketchbooks, and my strong desire to discover all that there is to learn as a 19-year-old about to live alone for the first time in a completely other country.

As I started this journey, I reminded myself to take everything in, and of course, take as many pictures as possible to remember my times here.

ENTRY 002: ADRENALINE

June was fading away by the time my first week of the program started. I was intent on making the most of my time and meeting as many people as I possibly could. However, amid the excitement of settling in, I had to remind myself of the moments of peace that allowed me to reflect and create.

A bus with cartoon drawings of trees, a house, and clouds on it, and a large map of Seoul metro transit visible at the top, with sky and clouds in the background.

A mixed media collage using doodles from my sketchbook and photos from my trip.

A vintage Sony CRT computer monitor displaying a pink and purple gradient screen against a background of a blue sky with clouds and hand-drawn clouds and stars. Text reads "Intro to COMPUTERS" and "Graphics."
A digital illustration featuring a vintage Sony portable television displaying a graphical pattern, with a person in a winter jacket, clouds, and stylized text saying 'Intro to Graphics' and 'AKO' in a colorful, outlined style.
A vintage Sony portable television with a colorful screen is shown, alongside hand-drawn style clouds and abstract shapes on a pastel-colored background. The image has stylized text reading "Intro to GRAPHICS."

Making use of typography, shape, and images to design a digital art piece in three colorways.

My first assignments in my “Intro to Computer Graphics” class were to experiment with Photoshop and create a collage or digital art piece. I was thrilled. I had taken this class because it seemed to be the only class related to art (and because I wanted to get an easy A), but it turned out to be just what I needed — an excuse to make some pretty designs during my time here.

I collected past doodles from my handy sketchbook, old film pictures I took back home, and combined them with new concepts, imagery, and love for this new place I was in.

ENTRY 003: GETTING SETTLED

About three weeks into my program, I had gotten quite used to things (well, as much as one could living in a new country alone for the first time). In my classes I was formally re-learning Adobe Illustrator by playing around with patterns and effects, watching and analyzing iconic Korean films like The Housemaid and Joint Security Area, all while studying social psychology on the side. Meanwhile…

A bamboo steamer basket on a wooden tray with a small bowl of butter, a glass of water, and menus or order cards on the table.
Various colorful posters advertising different types of pizza, including Margherita and pepperoni, with pictures of pizzas and descriptions, displayed on a concrete wall outside.
A magazine page featuring an indoor cafe scene with a woman sitting on a stool at the counter, various coffee items displayed, and signs in Japanese. The page shows a cozy, wood-themed interior and the text 'good design cafe vol.3'.
A display of greeting cards on a metal rack, featuring illustrations of animals including a cat and a rabbit, with some cards containing birthday messages and others with artistic designs like the sun and a seaside scene.
A handwritten note with drawings and doodles, including characters, a clock, and various symbols, placed on a table along with a promotional flyer from Awow ice shop and a glass of iced coffee or tea.

Outside of school, a lot of my time was spent visiting as many coffee shops and stationary stores across Seoul all while adding to my café notebook with sketches of my favorite eats and finding design inspiration in real life. I spent every weekend with my roommate traveling farther away from the university and into new neighborhoods ready to fill our tummies and my sketchbook!

Eventually I got into quite a rhythm of life in Seoul, every Thursday after I got out from my final class I would rush to the bus and head over to my favorite neighborhood, Yeonnam-dong, ready to find a new café to cool down in with an iced beverage and journal about my past week. This routine gave me my favorite memories of my time there, as I found the space that I needed to pause and enjoy the moments I had to myself, in the midst of trying to do everything at once.

This is where messing around with Adobe Illustrator got me.

  • Abstract digital artwork featuring geometric shapes, pastel colors, and intricate line patterns. The image includes a large blue spiral structure, yellow flower-like shapes, pink and purple overlapping forms, and small yellow star patterns in the bottom right corner.
  • An abstract map with topographical lines in red, green patches, and white grid-like structures.
  • Abstract digital artwork with flowing lines in green, orange, and pink on a light gray background.
  • Abstract artwork with geometric shapes and bold colors including red, green, purple, yellow, black, and white, arranged in a symmetrical pattern.
  • Abstract digital artwork featuring overlapping shapes and patterns in shades of green and light teal.

ENTRY 004: IT’S ALMOST OVER SO LET’S SEE THE PICTURES

The six weeks were flying by quickly, I was reaching the point in my program in which there was more time that had passed than I had left. By July 22 I had used up my disposable camera and set out on a solo-adventure to Myeong-dong to develop it. Prior to the trip I had saved a self-scanning photo lab (called Whale Photo Lab if you’d ever like to visit it) that developed film for $5,000 WON, that is $3.46 USD — a price that is almost unheard of in the film community. So, I set out on my solo adventure to the photo lab, where my idea for a “Summer in Seoul” sparked!

A floppy disk is inserted into a small white device, likely a cassette tape or floppy disk drive, on a beige desk. A black Logitech mouse is nearby.

Scanned.

A computer monitor displays a security camera system with multiple camera feeds, navigation and editing tools. The screen shows several images of different outdoor and indoor scenes, with controls for adjusting view and settings.

Edited.

Photograph of a lightbox with three strips of old film negatives displayed in a museum or gallery setting.

Negatives.

The workers helped me through the process, from scanning to uploading the images. I loved getting to edit each picture however I wanted to and it felt so reminiscent looking at all the memories I captured.

I knew that for my final graphic design project I had to create a set of postcards using past projects and anything we’d like and after seeing all of my film pictures developed it all clicked. I wanted to commemorate my time here in the best way I knew how, through design!

The finalized film pictures.

  • Yonsei University’s Underwood Hall

  • A narrow city street with parked cars on the left and a tall building with windows on the right. Overhead, power lines stretch across the sky. A painted wooden fence lines the sidewalk on the right side.

    The Streets of Yeonnam

  • People crossing a city street at a crosswalk with tall buildings and street signs in the background.

    The Streets of Hongdae

  • Street scene with parked cars, a bus, green trees, and a tall building in the background, under a clear sky.

    The Yeonnam Bus Stop

  • A city street scene in Korea with cars, bicycles, and buildings, including a sign with Korean text and a warning triangle.

    My local bus stop in Sinchon.

  • View of busy city street with crosswalk, multiple cars, and tall modern buildings.

    The Hongdae bus stop.

  • View of storefronts on a street with people walking, some rainbow-colored bricks along the sidewalk, and electrical wires above.

    A corner of restaurants in Yeonnam.

  • A rainy urban street scene with wet pavement and cars, a person holding an umbrella, lattice windows on the buildings, and a yellow 'no parking' sign on the sidewalk.

    Rainy day in Sinchon.

  • Dimly lit room with hanging red and white pendant lights and a small round table.

    The inside of Cafe Tetum.

  • Street view with Tall modern buildings, power lines, and pedestrians walking on the sidewalk at dusk.

    Overlooking Yeonnam (part one.

  • View from a balcony showing neighboring buildings with outdoor common areas and laundry lines, along with several pedestrians walking below.

    Overlooking Yeonnam (part two).

  • Exterior of a colorful multi-story building with a blue facade, balconies, and signage, seen through overhead power lines and cables in an urban setting.

    Overlooking Yeonnam (part three).

  • Nighttime city street scene with illuminated signs in various languages, power lines overhead, and pedestrians walking on the sidewalk.

    A Sunday night in Myeongdong.

  • A tree with pink flowers in front of a modern white apartment building, with a bench and greenery at the base of the tree.

    August blooms at Yonsei.

Two posters promoting summer in Seoul, South Korea. The left poster features a scene from inside a train with passengers, trees, clouds, and cute illustrations. The right poster shows a historic building surrounded by lush greenery.
A collage of abstract geometric and text designs with the words 'Summer in Seoul' and 'Ako in Korea'.
A collage of four colorful graphic design posters promoting "Summer in Seoul." The posters feature bold typography, cityscapes, abstract patterns, and artistic text arrangements, created in Adobe Illustrator, with some text indicating the design was
Design templates for summer in Seoul, featuring abstract patterns and colorful shapes, with text indicating their creator and a color-coded key.