Ahn Sang-soo (1952, Chungju,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

) is a South-Korean leading typographic designer.

Biography

Ahn Sang-soo developed an interest in

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...

typography in the early 1980s. He invented many typefaces, including one named after himself. He graduated from the university of Hongik. After graduation, he became an advertising designer for

LG Electronics LG Electronics Inc. () is a South Korean multinational electronics company headquartered in Yeouido-dong, Seoul, South Korea. LG Electronics is a part of LG Corporation, the fourth largest '' chaebol'' in South Korea, and often considered a ...

. He joined the ''Ggumim'' magazine as an art editor in 1981 and then the magazines ''Ma-dang'' and ''Meot'' as art director in 1983. In 1985, he created the design firm Ahn Graphics. In 1985, he designed his first self-titled typeface, creating a path of experimentation for the Korean script. He created the ''Madang'' typeface for the monthly magazine Madang to overcome the general monotony and rigidity of existing Hangeul typefaces. In 1988, he launched the alternative art and culture magazine ''bogoseo/bogoseo''. Ahn Sang-soo founded the alternative design school Paju Typography Institute (PaTI). He also founded the AG Typography Institute, an organization dedicated to the design and research of new typefaces. Ahn has published several design books, and translated seminal works in typography of Jan Tschichold and

Emil Ruder Emil Ruder (20 March 1914 – 13 March 1970) was a Swiss typographer and graphic designer, who with Armin Hofmann joined the faculty of the Schule für Gestaltung Basel (Basel School of Design). He is distinguishable in the field of typography ...

into Korean. Ahn Sang-soo supposedly launched the first internet cafe in Korea.

Other roles

1997-2001: Vice-president of ICOGRADA

Prizes and Awards

* 1983: Designer of the Year by ''Design Magazine'' * Korea Newspaper Award *1998:Grand Prix from ZGRAF 8 * 2007: Gutenberg Prize by the German city of

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahn, Sang-soo 1952 births South Korean typographers and type designers Living people People from Chungju