김교만과 한국 현대 그래픽 디자인

Abstract

Kyo-Man Kim born in Gongju in 1928 entered the Department of Applied Art, College of Fine Arts, Seoul National University in 1950. However, he could finish his learning in 1956 because the 6.25 Korean War occurred soon after. e purpose of this writing is to review one shape of Korean contemporary graphic design ranging from the mid. 1950s to the first half of the 1990s for about forty years through Kyo-Man Kims life and design activities. The writing divides into three design periods to provide an overall view of Korean modern graphic design through designer Kyo-Man Kim. The first is a period ranging from the mid.1950s to the mid.1960s, when design generally refers to art forms with pragmatic expressions, being understood as Craft or Applied arts. e second is from the middle half of the 1960s to the end of the 1980s, when the interest in Korean graphic design style is raised according to the appearance of the designer generation. The importance of design is emphasized in the industrial-economic dimension, and has self-awareness and identity in the Korean design industry. e third is the global era and digital era being connected to the present after starting before and after the 1988 Seoul Olympics. This writing on Kyo-Man Kims life and work has referred to remembrance of acquaintances who were usually close to him, interview content that Kyo.Man Kim himself said during his living years, his design work, and writing related to him. The contexts that I aimed to consider together while writing this paper are the following three kinds. The first is graphic design education of Seoul National University where Kyo-Man Kim held office for more than thirty years. e second is a formation process of the Korean graphic design field with incremental industry changes. And last, are general changes of the whole Korean society. These three dimensions had an influence on Kyo-Man Kims formation of the design world amid mutually close correlation. Kyo-Man Kim received early design education as applied art in the first half of the 1950s and played a role of a leader as well as a senior to the young designer generation that appeared in Korean society after the mid–1960s. On the other hand, Kyo–Man Kim taught graphic subjects including Basic Design and Illustration for design students as a university professor for around thirty years from 1965 to 1994. As a professor, he had a slightly negative attitude towards composition of curriculum or operation of a department by recognizing himself as a professional designer rather than a design educator. Kyo–Man Kim tried to construct his self–identity and the world of works through characteristic illustration and poster works in which a unique graphic character developed by himself appears. Design motif of Korean traditional folks, geometric and simple abstract forms and restrained colors feature prominently in his works which were regarded as a modern Western Design style at that time. Since the success of his first solo exhibition in 1976, Kyo–Man Kim was positioned as a designer who defined Korean graphic design styles. Korean–like graphic design styles in the 1970s and 1980s that are represented as a Kyo–Man Kim style were developed under the recognition of Korean thing versus Western thing rather than Korean thing versus Global thing. His works were evaluated as something that keeps modern and Western design senses in Korea, and had the dual effect of also being recognized as a unique style reflecting a Korean identity in foreign countries. In terms of Kyo–Man Kims design works, there was some criticism regarding the difficulties finding an internal logic and mutual correlation between content and form of works. However, Kyo–Man Kims design receives assessment that reflects well the emotion and humor of Korean people at the time and proceeds to affix the icon of his identity. Moreover he gains wide popularity form the design field as well as the general public. Kyo–Man Kim accomplished a significant number of Visual Communication Design works that stress team–work such as identity design, as well as his unique illustrations and design works. However, what continues for his lifetime is that we has more passion and interest in; his experiments in design materials, tools, and techniques with the postures of artist–designer and designer–artist, while emphasizing artwork that reflected his individual personality. is study sketches a history of so–called Korean Modern Design through Kyo–Man Kims career. It is likely that this is a fairly accurate assessment, and this writing supports it with biographical information amidst examples of the design works.

1928년 9월 7일 충청남도 공주에서 출생한 김교만은 성남중고등학교를 졸업한 후 1950년에 서울대학교 미술대학 응용미술과에 입학하여 1956년에 졸업했다. 졸업 직 후 K.K.디자인연구소를 설립하여 2년 동안 운영했고 그 후 진명여고, 성심여고, 서울예 고 미술교사 및 동양방직주식회사 디자이너 생활을 거쳐 1965년 서울대학교 응용미술 과 교수로 부임했다. 김교만은 1994년 정년퇴임 할 때까지 약 30여 년간 모교에 재직하 며 디자인 교육자이자 초창기 한국 그래픽 디자인 형성기의 선구적 디자이너로서 활발 한 활동을 했다. 이 글의 목적은 김교만의 생애와 작품활동을 통해 1950년대 중반부터 1990년대 중반까지 약 40여 년에 걸친 한국 현대 그래픽 디자인의 한 모습을 살펴보고 자 하는 것이다. 1966년 제1회 대한민국 상공미술전람회가 처음 개최될 당시 김교만은 학창시절 스승이자 후에 동료 교수가 된 이순석 심사위원장을 도와 제1부 상업미술부의 심사위 원으로 참여하였고 1990년까지 집행위원, 심사위원, 초대작가 등을 역임했다. 활동 초 기부터 우표디자인 작업을 꾸준히 해온 김교만은 1998년 작고하기 전까지 정보통신 부의 우표 심의위원으로 활동했으며, 통상산업부 산업디자인 심의위원으로도 활동했 다. 1972년에 창립된 한국그래픽디자인협회(KSGD)1 초대회장을 지냈으며, 1980년부 터 1998년까지 서울일러스트레이터협회 회장을 역임했다. 1968년에 서울시 문화상을, 1976년에는 대한민국산업디자인전 대회장상인 상공부장관상을 수상했으며 1982년에 는 유네스코 주최 노마 국제전에서 특선을, 1988년에는 88서울올림픽 문화포스터로 제12회 바르샤바 국제 포스터 공모전에서 특선을 받는 등 국내뿐만이 아니라 해외에서 도 한국을 대표하는 디자이너로 소개되었다. 1993년에는 동탑산업훈장을 수훈하였고, 1996년에는 한국산업디자인포장개발원(KIDP)에서 디자인 관계자들을 대상으로 설문 조사하여 선정한 한국의 산업디자이너 100인 중 70%라는 압도적인 득표 기록으로 1 위에 선정되기도 했다.