GRAPHIC, a quarterly design magazine published in Seoul, Korea, is a single theme per issue journal that focuses “on the other trends of graphic design which are different from the mainstream.” It does not depend upon sponsors or any governmental organizations for financial aid. .
The current #20 POSTER ISSUE is comprised of 22 folded posters by as many designers that express personal social agendas.
“Mass-produced and posted in public places, posters communicate with the public. Traditionally, they have represented a powerful means of expressing certain values or opinions, but the posters of today are relatively restricted in function, serving for the most part to advertise products, promote sales and publicize events. We are hard pressed to find any kind of social statement in the posters that cover our roadside bulletin boards, buildings, billboards and road signs. In reaction to this, our aim here is to recall the social purpose of the poster.”The posters you see in this issue are the fruits of this voluntary collaboration, containing a diverse array of ideas ranging from positions on particular social issues to the mottos that inform the designers’ work. While differing a bit in their focus, all of them share one common quality, namely a message that powerfully captures not an economic interest, but the values that they wish to share with the public.”
GRAPHIC has published “about one hundred thousand copies of these posters.” In addition, they will hang in exhibition venues, on roadside walls, and on the windows of shops and bookstores.
“We hope all of you reading will hang a poster you like in your own workspace. Offer them as gifts to friends. It is this kind of physical action that most clearly shows the social function of the poster.”
CONTRIBUTORSåbäkeAlex DeArmondAnthony BurrillBart de Baets & Sandra KassenaarBureau Mirko BorscheExperimental JetsetJin Dallae & Park WoohyukJin JungKimm KijoLawrence WeinerMark OwensMetahavenMoon SeungyoungPaul EllimanPaul SahrePierre BernardRichard Niessen & Esther de VriesRumorsScott KingSulki & MinSung JaeHyoukworkroom press