Seonil Yun's Honmun - any info?
I stumbled across a couple of pics of posters for the typeface Honmun by Seonil Yun on Sébastien Sanfilippo’s blog. There are lots of impressive projects by students of the Type]Media Department at KABK on display over on the blog. Honmun especially intrigued me because of its concept.
The text on the poster says: “Honmun is a Latin typeface for Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CJK). It functions as an independent Roman font with CJK specific typographic features.”
Does anyone know more about the project or know where to find some more information? One of my central interests in typography is multilingual typesetting involving Korean and Latin typefaces, so I’d love to learn more about this. I know Seonil Yun has posted on Typophile in the past; if I asked politely, could she be coaxed into coming out here again to enlighten us?
30.Nov.2007 7.27am
I’d like to see more of it, too.
1.Dec.2007 9.58pm
I just wrote Ms. Yun, and sent her a link to this thread.
2.Dec.2007 12.30am
Hello Jongseong, Dan,
Thanks for your interest in my graduation project at the KABK. Friends of mine notified me of this post... (thanks! ^^) I have been swamped with some other work and was away from it all missing chances to share more about it. I will put it on my website (under construction -_-;) or some other places sooner or later, but in the meantime, I will do my best to answer your questions. I would appreciate your patience in case my reply gets delayed.
Honmun is more specifically a Latin typeface for several existing CJK Myungjo (or Mincho in Japanese, Ming or Song in Chinese) style type that can work with different multilingual layout options and typesetting features. There are multitudes of ways to avoid the visual collision between more than two blocks of script cultures, but the most tricky case can be found in mixing them in a single body of text set with classic printing type. Unlike hybrid CJK type—meaning that its design concept is more or less derived directly from existing Western typefaces—or sans serif typefaces, Myungjo style holds strong calligraphic influences which filibuster creating a pigeon pairing pair. Also, highly localized typesetting applications and environment—difficulties in procuring quality CJK typefaces or CJK compatible typesetting apps as well as type technological format or standard issues, etc.—make it hard to explore cross-cultural typographic conventions of CJK with a Latin type.
There were some self-imposed constraints to assimilate the ordinary working environment of multilingual typesetting especially in the West. There are still lots of technical problems and questions that have to be dealt with. I am still learning discovering more interesting stuff that I did not even know at the time of starting the project, which is good. There is a saying in Korea: the ignorant is the bravest, and that was me. ^^
I would like to thank all the direct or indirect expertise, encouragement and help for this project taking advantage of this occasion. I will be glad to hear your ideas and suggestions any time.
Cheers...
2.Dec.2007 10.59pm
Ms. Yun,
Thanks for taking the time to share this with us. The project sounds interesting and ambitious, and there must be any number of ways to go with this concept; I’m curious to see what your take was on it. It must have been a challenging project, and I’m glad you were brave enough to take it on. Projects like this are much appreciated. I definitely will be looking forward to seeing more of Honmun.