Written by: Faviola Publico
What happens when deep thought meets playful, unconventional design? You’ll have Sulki & Min – a Seoul-based graphic design duo whose works combine strong ideas and unpredictable execution.
Join us as we take a look at this creative duo’s history and notable works, plus explore how their unique design philosophy can be applied to logo design and branding.
Who Are Sulki & Min?
Choi Sulki and Choi Sung Min are partners not only in work but also in life.
The two met at the Yale School of Art and quickly got along professionally and personally. According to Sulki, “their approaches are similar enough to start a partnership, but different enough to complement each other.”
These differences can be seen in their educational backgrounds before Yale. Sulki studied visual communication design at Chung-Ang University in South Korea, while Min pursued industrial design at Seoul National University.
Even their thesis was different from each other. Sulki’s is all about the pragmatics of the diagram, showing her analytical and systematic approach. While Min’s thesis explores visibility and surveillance in graphic design, showing his interest in theoretical and conceptual thinking.
These diverse backgrounds and interests play a big role in their unique, interdisciplinary perspective on design.
They married in September 2003, when Sulki finished her graduate course at Yale. The same year, they went to the Netherlands to work as researchers at Jan van Eyck Academy, contributing to a project on the cultural identity of the city of Leuven and designing many of the academy’s publications and promotional materials.
Sulki & Min’s Career and Notable Works
In 2005, Sulki & Min made the decision to return to Korea and start their own independent design practice. This move was driven by a desire for their work to be “more supplementary than auxiliary” and to produce art that is more in tune with Korea’s cultural sector.
Their agency’s first work was a poster for the International Modern Dance Festival (MODAFE). The poster received acclaim and opened the door for them to work on materials for the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), Asia Culture Center, and more.
MODAFE 2005 Poster
The duo also started working as professors – Sulki as a graphic design teacher at Kaywon School of Art and Min as a professor of typography at Seoul National University.
The two then founded Specter Press the following year, as they wanted to document and realize intangible artistic ideas through publications. These publications range from monographs to books on Korean design history, Korean translations of existing books, and publications that are works of art themselves.
Ob.scene (Published in Specter Press)
Specter Press would then collaborate with and publish books by Hong Seung-hye, Jackson Hong, Jeong Geumhyung, Oh Min, Park MeeNa, Park Wonjoo, Sasa[44], and other notable artists in Korea.
Sulki & Min also had their first exclusive exhibition at the Gallery Factory in Seoul in 2006, for which they received the Art Award of the Year from the Arts Council Korea. The two were the first Korean designers to be invited to the BMW Guggenheim Lab.
All of these notable projects led them to become a household name in the Korean graphic design scene.
Sulki & Min’s Design Philosophy
The creative duo’s design philosophy can be described as the following:
Concept-driven design
Sulki & Min describe their approach as “impurely concept-driven.” They start with clear ideas which they will then execute in unpredictable ways.
You can see this in their work for Space Circle, a music label that organized a joint concert for bands that hailed from Japan, China, and Korea.
Sulki & Min likened the concert to The Romance of Three Kingdoms and said, “Like the historical events described in the eponymous novel, the show won’t necessarily be peaceful – it should not be. A great clash of sounds, passions, and ideas will erupt, elevating the venue to a sublime arena. It‘s going to be emotional. It’s going to be beautiful.”
Another example is their work for the exhibition Voyages extraordinaires. They were inspired by a story in the collection in which the protagonist travels in a balloon.
The red shapes were meant to be interpreted as diagrams for balloons as well as analogies to the diversity in art. The exhibition title was also arranged vertically, to mimic the strings in a balloon as well as the longitude lines on a map.
Last is the visual identity they created for the 6th VH Award. It’s striking in simplicity. It is centered around the five strokes to form the letter V and letter H. When animated, the strokes also transform into an arrow, a 1, and a dot.
Aside from showing the initials of the awards, it also represents movement, evolution, and innovation – all the things that the awards support. It’s a great way to reinforce the show’s identity while having a strong and distinct visual branding.
Emphasis on typography
Typography is more than a tool for Sulki & Min — it’s a language in itself. They work with both Roman and Hangul alphabets to create works that make more innovative and conceptual use of letterforms.
An example is their poster for Cabbage Thoughts, a dance performance by Park Na Hoon and his company. The wrinkled effect in the typography is meant to mimic the cabbage in the title, as well as simulate movement when dancing.
Next is their iconic poster for MMCA Performing Arts 2017. The four Korean characters from the program name are merged with other information to mark the intersections.
Last is their work for the 2012 “Trash” issue of PRINT magazine. Sulki & Min created an eco-friendly version of Galaxie Polaris, the magazine’s standard typeface, to reinforce the issue’s recycling concept.
How is the font eco-friendly, you ask? Well, the duo added tiny holes in the typeface to make it lighter compared to the standard one.
Except the “holes” came from embedding a quote from Carl Sagan’s 1980 science book, Cosmos, which talks about how the cosmos is bigger than our ecosystem. Talk about combining art with function!
If this clever move inspired you, feel free to jump to our logo makers like Letter E logos, Letter P logos, Letter S logos, and more. You can also check out our guide on type anatomy and try your hand at making your own custom typeface!
See some example logos below:
Creative Studio Letter E by BrandCrowd
Logistics Letter P by BrandCrowd
Dresser Furniture Letter S by BrandCrowd
Belief in constraints
Sulki & Min said, “Total creative freedom is often neither free nor total nor creative. We believe in constraints. We also believe it’s possible to work with irrational restrictions such as the client’s favorite colors.”
The two see limitations as a way to spark innovation. Remember the MODAFE poster earlier? There’s actually a story behind that. Aside from the standard poster they made, they also needed a smaller version to be placed in poster stands. However, there is no budget to create two different posters.
As a solution, they designed the standard poster so that if you cut it in the middle, it can be divided into two smaller posters. And yes, the design still makes sense whether you view it combined or divided. Very cost-efficient!
Another example is their work for the Asia Culture Center Theater. They were requested to create a visual framework to keep the Center’s marketing materials consistent. However, as the Center tackles multiple fields of art like dance, music, and acting, it was difficult to find one element to tie them all together.
Sulki & Min then came up with a pentagon as a metaphor for the Center’s five areas of activities. The pentagon’s grids were also stylized as lines to add visual interest on a page and to mimic stage lighting – one element that all fields share.
Create Your Sulki & Min-Inspired Design Today
Sulki & Min push the boundaries of what design could be. Their works are bold, unapologetic, and impactful, while remaining grounded by a strong idea and thought behind them.
Were you inspired by their works? Even if you are a beginner at design, you can still create looks inspired by the two. Check out Design.com’s tools like the AI logo generator or the AI poster generator. Get templates that you can then customize and edit. Then apply what you learned above, and you’ll end up with a design that is both witty and creative!
You can also read our other related articles if you’re hungry to learn more:
Written by DesignCrowd on Tuesday, April 22, 2025
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