HEON

Expanding my personal branding project conducted during CDM2001: Culture and Design Trends, I deepened its quality through the thesis project supported by the supervising professor and monetary aid from the National Research Foundation of Korea.

In the beginning, I archived what I had done during the coursework. Briefly summarising and revising key concepts and design materials on Photoshop and Illustrator, I started to outline the study plan for the research with the research question: what kind of scent has feelings of Korea and how perfumery can promote Korean identity.

After completing literature review, I found out that Korea has a lack of history compared to the western countries, especially Italy and France, where they have rich atmosphere to grow herbs, flowers, and more and transform them into a luxury goods. Koreans did utilise scent for spiritual ceremonies and accessories in the old days; however, the study done for this topic was far less than what has been conducted in the western perfume industry. Therefore, I delved into the tradition of Korea analysing the Korean flag, eastern and Korean symbols, and natural scents unique to Korea. Based on this result, I conducted a survey with about 200 Korean participants and 2 interviews with professionals, who are my perfumery teachers helping me to achieve receiving a perfumery certificate in September 2020.

Then, I came up with several scents that would provoke Korean identity when people smell. Inspired from the two distinct different forces coalesced into one, portrayed in the centre of the Korean flag, I suggested to manufacture two main scents, Sunlight and Moonlight, to highlight the brand identity as a Korean perfume brand.

I could receive an award in 2021 from a prestigious Korean Craft and Design Foundation as a promising young and emerging brand that promotes Korea with its consideration in art, design, craft, and management.
After that, Although I could not realise the perfume brand due to practical issues such as the requirement to own a store which I could not as a university student, I opened a diffuser store which needed much less monetary expenditure. Then, I executed all the details I have set to make the actual scents and sold the products online. For actual selling and promotion, I utilised my painting to give more context and visual appeal that matches the scents I made.

I have attached related links for more information. All design processes, photos, and uploads on the Internet are done by myself, without any external support except mass printing of cards and packages.