Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Susie Soojeong Koh. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Susie Soojeong thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

It was 11 years old when I first realized that I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally, no matter what. Specifically, it was later on that I realized that graphic design was the exact career path I wanted. – Probably around the age of 20.

Since I was very young, I grew up experiencing various arts, such as music, dance, and art. These experiences had a significant impact on my childhood memory. I was a kid who always represented daydreaming as a sound, gesture, or visual element. Among them, art touched me the most. My imagination has always been related to decorating something pretty, making something convenient. To show people this idea in my head, I had to have the ability to visualize it. And when I made something into a visual outcome, it was really cool to empathize and communicate with people through it. Especially when I realized that someone could feel joy and I could contribute to making the world even a little bit more beautiful through my artwork, I decided to make it my vocation to create something through art. Gratefully, I was an only child of my parents, who always believed in and supported me. So when I said I wanted to major in art, my parents helped me to go to the best art school in Korea so that I could receive professional art education from an early age, and I learned basic knowledge and skills to spend my school days at an arts middle and high school.

There, I was able to experience various genres/tracks of art by segmenting them. The more I learned about art, the more I realized that I was interested in how to make it practical, beyond just creative activities. It allowed me to extend my field of art to the design. Thus, when I was 20 years old, I came to the United States to study intensively about design. Then, among many other designs, I noticed that graphic design is a fascinating way to visualize the imagination and even utilize it to change the world to a more beautiful place. From that moment, I think of this captivating graphic design as the path of my life.

Susie Soojeong, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hello! I’m Susie Koh. I’m a Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary graphic designer specializing in Brand Identity and Motion Graphics. I’m currently working at Sony Pictures Entertainment, designing for SPT game shows, including Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. This is the short paragraph that describes me most recently.

Let me go back to the past and introduce myself more deeply. I was born and raised in Seoul, Korea, and came to the US when I was 20. When I was a kid, I was a child who liked to daydream, and for me, ‘art’ was an enjoyable game to show my imagination to people around me. Thanks to my parents, who have actively supported everything I liked, I decided on my career path early. I entered an art school with a dream of becoming an artist at 11. I went to middle and high school there and learned everything about art. From that young age, my career path as an artist began. I learned various artistic techniques and basic knowledge of the arts in middle and high school. My school’s class schedule was set to parallel our studies, focusing on art class, and we drew pictures almost every day, including vacation. There, I learned the basics of many art genres, from painting to sculpture and design.

Among the many tracks, the field that I was most interested in was design. The fact that I could use it in real life while pursuing my artistic side was the same as the value I ultimately pursued as an artist. And by the time I graduated from high school, I wanted to learn more about deep design. Mainly, I became very interested in the field of graphic design. I have loved to watch TV or movies during break time, and I was usually interested in visual elements such as logos, intro, and posters in TV shows and movies. I encountered graphic design as I wondered, “What kind of person makes that?” So, I’m here in LA, where Hollywood is, to go to college. That’s how I entered the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. The ArtCenter’s curriculum is managed to raise high-quality designers who immediately jump into the design field upon graduation. Founded on the Bauhaus ideology, it was a school that thought a lot about the value of practical design. In particular, the biggest reason I chose this school was that they had a major-oriented class without a foundation year (because I’ve already done foundation for ten years since I was 11 years old!) My choice was correct. I met a lot of exceptional professors and outstanding designer friends at the ArtCenter, and I learned a lot of things and grew up as a graphic designer.

Now I’ll come back to the present. Upon graduation, I joined a major entertainment company in LA as a graphic designer. So far, I’ve been working here on the game show team in the television department, and my team and I are in charge of visualizing & socials for the game shows owned by the company. I became a designer who did the things that I was curious about while watching the media in the past. It’s what I’ve achieved, and I realize how powerful it is to dream. I’m so lucky to be a person whose work matches what I like. Even now, I’m constantly working on making logos and intros for different seasons and spin-off versions of the show in the team, and I’m enjoying these things I do. Especially because of the characteristics of the game show, isn’t it great that viewers can enjoy watching the show and following the play with my design? Especially when I go to pubs or outdoor facilities, I feel really proud when the show I worked on is on their TV.

Finally, it’s time to talk about the future. I’m a young designer with a lot of ambition. There are still a lot of projects I want to work on, and there are a lot of skills I want to learn. Luckily, I’m still growing up by meeting good leaders and mentors in my current team and learning many things. Someday, I want to be a wise leader like them and lead the team, and I want to inspire many people, like many mentors in my life. But most importantly, I am a designer. All my future will be decided in the creative journey. I will design a better place for everyone and continue to fulfill my dreams.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

It turns the world into a more beautiful and enjoyable place. This is my ultimate goal for about 20 years from entering this creative path. It’s not grandiose to try to change the world. Rather than radical changes like syndrome, I’m talking about the fundamental thing I can do best: design that makes people comfortable. Especially these days, as the power of the media grows so much, people encounter many things to see and issues through the media. That’s how many times we feel tired after watching some stimulating elements. As a designer in visual development, our role has become more critical. To make a more beautiful world, I always think about how to make people’s view pleasantly or convey this exciting information comfortably. These thoughts have grown as I continue my creative journey in the media and entertainment industries. It may seem small, but I think the most significant advantage of this job as a creative designer is that it can positively change society.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

At the end of my 8th grade in middle school, one day, my homeroom teacher played a 15-minute video of Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement address at Stanford. Honestly, I wasn’t paying attention to the first part at all, but I was so impressed by the phrase he said in the last paragraph that I suddenly became immersed. He said the sentence “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish,” which was on the back cover of The Whole Earth Catalogue. When I first heard it, I felt stabbed in the back. It was very concise, but it had a lot of meanings. It was an enlightening phrase that touched my heart. And I looked up The Whole Earth catalog that Steve Jobs mentioned and a book published in 2008 with the same title. As expected, it was very impressive. Now, about 12 years later, that phrase has motivated my life. Whatever you do or face, you should always crave and study (Stay Hungry) and go straight ahead, even if you look stupid (Stay foolish). Isn’t it so cool? That’s what Steve Jobs said and the guide to my life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://susiekoh.design
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/susiekoh.design/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susie-koh-6388a3197/

Image Credits
Susie Soojeong Koh