Postage stamps as an R&B identity and more: Haeri Chung on her graphic design practice

Haeri Chung, otherwise known as Super Salad (fantastic name, we know) is a Seoul-based graphic designer mainly working in print. She also founded an independent publishers called Super Salad Stuff which is where her nickname comes from, and where she compiles all her self-initiated projects as a way to keep them alive and healthy. Contributing these self-published publications to art and books fairs every year, she also distributes free papers on a wide range of topics from the subject of how to tie different knots, to documenting the inherent design applied to air mail.

In the last few months, Haeri’s designed a series of postage stamps which you can actually use for posting material in Korea and at the same time, it also acts as the visual identity for the Korean R&B musician Ku-One-Chan. The idea for the identity came from the initial talks between the designer and musician. “Ku-One-Chan mentioned that every time he releases his music, he feels like a new planet is created in the universe. So, this identity is designed to present his universe” on a tiny piece of paper which can then be posted out into the world.

In Knot, a “beautiful manual” detailing how to tie 18 different knots, Haeri designs a three colour Risograph publication. The idea came about when Haeri’s friend experimented with various types of knots but kept forgetting the ins and outs of the process. “I decided to make a useful yet beautiful book”, says Haeri on the matter. Researching the knots most-searched by the general public and illustrating each key step for said knots using the four main illustrative elements of rope, an S-shaped hook, timber and pole.

In other work for another musician, Haeri designed the album artwork and coinciding poster work for the artist known as 10cm. For 10cm’s first live album, Haeri draws on the visual language of the music scene, appropriating illustrations of tangled amp cords to unify the designed identity across all platforms. And because the live event took place in January, she also designed a calendar to go alongside the merchandise, using the backs of each calendar month as a way to tie together all the visual elements of the musical identity.

Lastly, Haeri has also been working on the poster design for the Jeonju International Film Festival, where 100 films and 100 posters are exhibited too. For the festival, 100 graphic designs were invited to design a poster each for a film showing at the event. For the festival’s fifth running event, Haeri was assigned to the experimental film Parsi directed by Eduardo ‘Teddy’ Williams. Throughout the Argentinian film, the poetic film’s narration often starts with lines beginning with “parece” meaning “seems like".

Haeri understands this as the film’s way of expressing that “everything is applicable and everyone can add their own meaning onto something.” Consequently, her poster sees a script font and broken up letter anatomies. In turn, Haeri designs the poster similarly to the process of writing poetry; full of alternate meanings and subjective interpretation, the viewer has to look closely to gather the information and take a guess as to what the design is really projecting.