Min Heejin, the pioneer creative director in K-POP gigantic company, has been creating lots of influential art pieces. (If you haven’t already read the previous story, click the link below.) Now, who has taken over the aesthetic after she left, and how they have changed? Observing NCT’s recent year works can be clues of their future.
The youngest group NCT’s works that Min Heejin didn’t always direct
The youngest group NCT is a little bit different from other seniors. The concept is that they’re a group of infinite members who are constantly shifting into different sub-units in different cities around the world. SM has intentionally tried to expand its market to Europe and the USA through NCT’s music. It’s also remarkable in terms of the design approach. First, the upper image is NCT visual works up to 2017 by Min Heejin.
NCT’s packages have been directed by another visual director in SM and even foreign design studio since 2018. SM visual director Ellena Yim and Korean design studio ORDINARY PEOPLE created NCT 2018 “Empathy”.
From the comparison between the above two cases, the direction principle had changed from an overwhelmed, massive amount of information, or photography-based style to simple, kinetic, typography-base one. (or rather, from Asian style to western style in a sense)
Moreover, the latter two albums Regular-Irregular made by British design studio MMBP and Regulate were further simplified. MMBP also did re-branding for NCT with a custom typeface. I got really into this style, but I feel like this photobook (upper-right of the image) would be somewhat less acceptable for enthusiastic groupies.
The team created a versatile brand system and custom typeface to empower the in-flux nature of the NCT127 structure and facilitate versioning of assets across borders, all while retaining its distinct visual identity.
We are really not sure why Min Heejin quit visual direction for NCT, but I guess that girlish, elegant, retro, and eye-catching are strong assets of Min Heejin except for this bold style. While the transition could be proof that the characteristic of her feminine field declined, the frequency of almost opposite features like solid, futuristic, and geometrical graphics has been increased.
NCT’s recent works, We Are Superhuman with retro-futurism vibe and NEO ZONE with the 90’s cultural reboot stickers and teaser videos, have been directed by SM visual director Lee Sangmin.
Who is the post-Min Heejin
After Min Heejin quitting, Kim Seajun and Lee Sangmin have been the main visual directors in SM. Kim Seajun was originally credited as a stylist in Min Heejin’s era. He would be the next key person of SM creations because of his background. You can find some sort of tendencies or strategies in recent SM creations in terms of fonts, textures, and photography.
- fonts: decorative serif and old-fashioned bold sans
- textures: glued papers, ripped papers, stickers, and plastic-wrapped
- photography: VSCO filtered color scheme and mellow monochrome
Needless to say, typography has huge impacts on visual design. K-POP has a unique custom called teaser schedule, bottom-right of the image, which usually consists of typography mostly because it’s the first piece of spoiler without certain visuals. In addition to that, some typefaces are made personally by corporating with type designers that I’m going to write about another post.
In terms of texture trends, a newbie girl group under JYP Entertainment called ITZY, the upper-right part of the image, also used for their recent visuals. Compared to the early K-POP design trends which I mentioned previously as the first iOS skeuomorphism, I guess it’s a little bit different. While this recent one has some fake hand feelings, it is still the flat design in terms of a layered structure. (you know what I mean..?) Probably the main gap would be whether the texture is intentionally used for visuals for being realistically or used as a part of graphical elements.
Regarding photography, there something to do with the trends VSCO, Instagram vibes. Of course, these filters are no longer functioning for just nostalgia as well as the 90’s reboot. Teenagers, the main listeners of K-POP, don’t consider in that way, or rather filtered photos are more familiar to them.
How SM creation has changed after she quitting
Here is my analysis of Min Heejin’s characteristics, and also the prediction of the next one of SM creation by Kim Seajun.
- Min Heejin: a storytelling concept based on her childhood and art college background, and art film preferences
- Kim Seajun: adopting specific cultures or period’s trends as fashion magazine editors or stylists do
Fandom had been definitely fascinated with Min Heejin’s narrative visual works and assuming deeply what she had implied with watching every single teaser. But she was sometimes considered to be too influential, and all outputs seemed to depend on her. Some fans claimed the discrimination between her favorite members and others, her repetitive creativity, or too many homages. Every talented visual director tends to be exposed to that kind of prejudices.
After she quitting, now it’s remarkable that the new visual directors Kim Seajun and Lee Sangmin are really good at keeping up with the times and have altered photo books packed together in albums to design-oriented. While they prioritized design itself or trends, overwhelming individuality and narrative identity seem to fade out. In addition, design-oriented also means that designers might use idols’ photos as one of the designing materials, for better or for worse. Sometimes, they might lack fan-service like ‘We just wanna watch his/her face WIDELY.’
Of course, that’s just my personal opinion. While writing this, I just saw the next NCT’s teaser visual that was kinda different as expected. OMG, but they will have shown the eye-opening approach next. There was always them.
And I just found and firmly believed another tendency of recent SM works. They’ve really into two types of styling like EXO’s Obsession, NCT 127’s Kick It (the next album as well?), and NCT DREAM’s Ridin.
The Next Story
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still writing
- the characteristics of K-POP design
- comparison to J-POP creation
- K-POP as one of the national strategies
