Pick up your card & ink your love into words!
Running a little business in Korea, 2024
Running a little business in Korea, 2024
Background
After years of working in international design environments, I became interested in looking at Korean heritage from a new perspective. Although I had worked on projects across different cultures, I had never explored my own. Living in Korea made me see familiar things differently, almost like experiencing the country as a visitor.
Solution
GREETINGS FOLKs is a stationery brand that explores Korean heritage through my lens.
I wanted to explore Korean culture and the market with this new perspective and turn what I discovered into a real brand. It was also a chance to challenge myself as a brand designer by building and running a business in a new market.
After years of working in international design environments, I became interested in looking at Korean heritage from a new perspective. Although I had worked on projects across different cultures, I had never explored my own. Living in Korea made me see familiar things differently, almost like experiencing the country as a visitor.
Solution
GREETINGS FOLKs is a stationery brand that explores Korean heritage through my lens.
I wanted to explore Korean culture and the market with this new perspective and turn what I discovered into a real brand. It was also a chance to challenge myself as a brand designer by building and running a business in a new market.
Delivery
Visual Audit
Brand Identity
Package Design
Customer Experience Design
Painting & Illustration
Website
Social Media
Visual Audit
Brand Identity
Package Design
Customer Experience Design
Painting & Illustration
Website
Social Media
GREETINGS FOLKs means ‘Greetings folks’ and ‘Greetings folklore’. Lowercase ‘s’ makes a connection between these meanings.
The tiger comes from the Korean folk painting ‘Hojakdo’ (Tiger and Magpie). Tigers have long been familiar and friendly figures in Korean culture. They appeared in folk paintings in the past and can still be found today on street signs and as character figures. The two tigers represent past and present, heritage and modernity, and my life between England and Korea.
<Original Sijeonji from the collection of the National Museum of Korea>
<GREETINGS FOLKs’s modern sijeonji with magpie>
GREETINGS FOLKs began with Sijeonji — letter paper used during the Joseon Dynasty to share heartfelt words with family, friends and loved ones.
Sijeonji came with colourful illustrations and symbols. Each one carried a meaning and a wish for good fortune. We extended this idea into Korean folk paintings, where familiar images also carry wishes for happiness and joy.
This idea is presented on the stationery products and brand identity.
Each piece of GREETINGS FOLKs stationery was inspired by Minhwa paintings with beautiful meanings.
The artworks were painted by hand, using colour pigments and carefully building up layers of colour. Hand-stamped details and individually handmade envelopes added a personal touch to each piece.
I brought the idea of bojagi into a modern envelope, reinterpreting its purpose of wrapping and protecting precious things through different materials. Ramie-textured paper, stone-like paper, traditional hanji and silk lining bring the past into a modern form.
The artworks were painted by hand, using colour pigments and carefully building up layers of colour. Hand-stamped details and individually handmade envelopes added a personal touch to each piece.
I brought the idea of bojagi into a modern envelope, reinterpreting its purpose of wrapping and protecting precious things through different materials. Ramie-textured paper, stone-like paper, traditional hanji and silk lining bring the past into a modern form.
As an online brand, one of the biggest challenges was creating a personal connection without a physical store. I wanted to turn this limitation into an opportunity by creating a moment of surprise when customers received their order.
I designed touchpoints throughout the customer journey, from discovering GREETINGS FOLKs online to receiving and opening the package. The shipping box was screen-printed with the brand’s products, turning the packaging into part of the brand experience while reducing unnecessary packaging. Red string held the stationery securely in place while adding a simple visual detail.
Even the leftover materials were turned into small cards and included with each order, giving the materials a second life.
I collaborated with a government organisation, independent luxury brands and corporate companies to create small-batch stationery. Each collaboration was designed to reflect the partner’s unique character while bringing the colours and visual language of GREETINGS FOLKs into the work.
Beyond cards, I also reinterpreted traditional objects such as bookmarks and books once used by Joseon scholars, taking each project from concept and design through to production.
Over 10 months, GREETINGS FOLKs grew from an idea into a stationery brand in the Korean market. It became an opportunity to bring my international perspective into a familiar cultural context and explore Korean culture through a contemporary brand.
As the brand grew, I received collaboration enquiries from various clients and was invited to meet customers through pop-ups in Seoul. The brand also expanded beyond stationery into new ways of connecting with customers.
For me, GREETINGS FOLKs became more than a stationery brand. It showed me how culture, design and customer response could shape a brand in the real world.
GREETINGS FOLKs is now archived at the request of its customers, remaining online as an archive of its work and stories.
Visit our website
An analogue and digital side project with London-based UI/UX designer Sohoum.
Post service
Delivery
Visual Audit
Brand Identity
Package Design
Customer Experience Design
Painting & Illustration
Website
Social Media
Visual Audit
Brand Identity
Package Design
Customer Experience Design
Painting & Illustration
Website
Social Media
GREETINGS FOLKs
Pick up your card & ink your love into words!
Background
After years of working in international design environments, I became interested in looking at Korean heritage from a new perspective. Although I had worked on projects across different cultures, I had never explored my own. Living in Korea made me see familiar things differently, almost like experiencing the country as a visitor.
Solution
GREETINGS FOLKs is a stationery brand that explores Korean heritage through my lens.
I wanted to explore Korean culture and the market with this new perspective and turn what I discovered into a real brand. It was also a chance to challenge myself as a brand designer by building and running a business in a new market.
Pick up your card & ink your love into words!
Background
After years of working in international design environments, I became interested in looking at Korean heritage from a new perspective. Although I had worked on projects across different cultures, I had never explored my own. Living in Korea made me see familiar things differently, almost like experiencing the country as a visitor.
Solution
GREETINGS FOLKs is a stationery brand that explores Korean heritage through my lens.
I wanted to explore Korean culture and the market with this new perspective and turn what I discovered into a real brand. It was also a chance to challenge myself as a brand designer by building and running a business in a new market.
2025
Running a little business in Korea
Running a little business in Korea