We recently connected with Nayoung Kwon and have shared our conversation below.

Nayoung, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

Originally, I studied Fine Art back in college before becoming a graphic designer. I have been into art ever since I was a little kid and it naturally led me to dream of being an Artist. However, in my senior year in college, I went to Utah State University as an exchange student and it changed my career path. I had a chance to take a graphic design class and learned a lot about great graphic designers who want to create a positive impact with their works. I learned about designers like Milton Glaser, Neville Brody, and Paula Scher and was hugely moved by their socially engaged projects. This experience made me realize that I had this deep need to create something that’s more helpful for others rather than creative art that’s heavily self-explored. Creating something in the digital world was another fascinating experience for me as my creative journey was rather limited in materials. Being able to create art with a computer gave me so much freedom and I immediately fell in love with the graphic design world. So I switched my gear and decided to pursue a professional graphic designer.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was lucky enough to get diverse experience as a graphic designer in Korea. My first internship was at Sejong Center which is one of the best performing Art Centers. As an amateur musician myself, I was incredibly excited about designing for festivals, shows, plays, and exhibitions. After my internship, my first full-time job was more aligned with my design initiative which is social impact design. I was able to work with many great clients and did a lot of editorial design and some branding. My next journey was working at a global hotel chain as an in-house marketing designer. This experience taught me a lot about managing internal brands and customer experience design.

However, my design practice was still mainly limited to print material and I wanted to expand my experience and skills. Ever since my experience at Utah I also had this dream of coming to the US to study again. So, I’ve made a radical decision to come to the US for my studies after working 4 years in Korea. It took a lot of resolution, but it was also something I wanted to do for a very long time so it was an easy decision in a way. And this spring, I got my master’s degree at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My design journey was driven by social impact design. As someone with a Fine Art background, I feel the true value of graphic design is that it can create a positive impact in a way that’s different from Fin Art because I think Fine Art is more about self-exploration. After my experience in Utah, I realized that I wanted to make something more purposeful, practical, and helpful for a broader audience. This is still the biggest motivation for me.

I was lucky that my very first full-time job aligned with my goal. I worked at an agency where we have so many non-profit organization clients and start-ups who want to make changes for a better world. I was very inspired to work with such amazing clients.

Since social impact was something that I’ve been mainly interested in it was also my thesis topic in my master’s program. I created a pictogram system for the side effects and symptoms in medication hoping that it could be helpful for the future healthcare field. Currently, I work for a design consulting company that focuses on design with a large social impact.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

As a graphic designer, I feel rewarded the most when my work can be helpful to other people. This is especially true when clients are also happy about the result. When I was working at a design agency back in Korea I had the opportunity to work with advocates for public interest law, a non-profit organization. They wanted to make this report (book) on human rights violations of migrant workers on Korean fishing vessels. This was a way of letting the public know about the cruel reality and they were supposed to submit this report to the UN to raise more awareness. I was in charge of making a report as well as an infographic. Both me and the client were happy about how the design came out. I was thrilled to be able to be part of such a meaningful project and I guess that’s the kind of moment when I feel that I’m happy the most as a designer.

Contact Info:

• Website: nayoung.me
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kny023/