Hyundai Department Store Group, Brand Strategy Team

Since its foundation in 1971, Hyundai Department Store has grown steadily to become a popular distribution platform in South Korea, operating both online and offline. Acting as a friendly neighbour to customers in every major city across the country, Hyundai Department Store offers products to suit every lifestyle, customer services and multifaceted cultural facilities. In 2021, the new branch, The Hyundai Seoul, opened its doors on Yeouido Island, in Seoul. The Brand Strategy Team is dedicated to developing brand identities that forge a stronger connection between the company and its customers. The team consists of product managers and designers and works on brand strategies to refine the brand image and expand the customer base both online and offline through various design projects – such as seasonal campaigns, recycled shopping bags, brand typefaces and brand guidelines.

Hyundai Department Store Group, Brand Strategy Team in an Interview with Red Dot

Red Dot: To what extent do you think new technologies are changing design?
Today, the boundaries between online and offline media are becoming increasingly blurred. That’s why we already prepare content variations in the project planning stage that are optimally suited for each medium. Even within a single project, we need both powerful still images and video with a story for each medium. With these communication strategies in mind, Happiness Sans was developed to be used effectively both online and offline. When we decided to create a new brand typeface, we were keen to include a “variable” feature. Another brand font we developed eight years ago had only two fixed weights. The biggest technical difference between the previous typefaces and Happiness Sans is that people can use different weights for different purposes. This variable feature gives people more flexibility respond to different media.

What makes your work unique?
Happiness Sans is an economical typeface that is optimised for digital devices, but at the same time conveys the aesthetics of handwriting. The wide letterspacing and the concise stems allow for excellent legibility in digital environments. Based on this stable structure, we wanted to convey the impression of cheerful happiness by adding the shape of the rising curve at the end of the stroke and the curve of the apex. For the Latin script, the curved features of Hangeul were reproduced by reinterpreting the early grotesque font style. The position and size of the baseline were adjusted to blend in with the shape of Hangeul.

Was your award-winning work inspired by current social issues?
As the pandemic has continued over the past few years, many people’s shopping patterns have shifted from offline to online. Hyundai Department Store had been operating its business mainly in offline retail for the past 50 years. However, due to a social background favouring non-face-to-face purchases, the company has been strengthening its online business. We aim to communicate the brand in a connected way, both online and offline. Developing a brand typeface was an important milestone towards achieving that goal.

Which target group would you like to address with your award-winning work?
Compared to other generations, the digital native generation may have a little more access to this typeface. But we would like to say that Happiness Sans is open to everyone. Like our brand mission, “Hyundai Department Store wants to bring happiness to everyone”. So, we expect this typeface, which captures the spirit of the brand, to be familiar to everyone.

Please describe the concept of creativity against the background of your award-winning work.
People generally tend to expect very strong impressions for creativity. However, the process of creating a brand identity by building unity is also an area of creativity. Therefore, we wanted to embed the value of happiness that our company pursues in this typeface, which is widely used in all communication. At first impression, Happiness Sans has a calm feeling. But the closer you look, the more you can find cheerful details. Hyundai Department Store will deliver a more friendly voice to customers with Happiness Sans.