RAW Magazine Issue 4:
Min Guhong Manufacturing
http://responsiveinfraflat.minguhongmfg.com
Q: Where do you live?
Min: In Seoul, South Korea. It’s also one of the northern Mr. Kim’s potential targets.
Q: What brought you into web design?
Min: When I was about 11 years old, I made a simple website for one of my heroes of those days on Yahoo! GeoCities. Some naive texts and images were centered on the maroon background with MIDI-based background music. It was the first website I made. (But after Yahoo! shut down its service in 2009, now it is only in my dreams.) Since that time, making things up for me or someone with HTML, CSS and JavaScript has been one of my pleasures. This is because it is easy and cheap to make, and most of all, accessible. The interesting thing is that what I made about 20 years ago and what I made yesterday don’t seem much different to me. I founded Min Guhong Manufacturing in 2015, but it is *not* officially a web design agency.
Q: Who are/were your idols at this time?
Min: Though I don’t know if I can call this my idol, at this time, publicists of large and small companies inspire me. I’m focusing on their promotional strategies.
Q: What does your typical day look like?
Min: Min Guhong Mfg. is a parasitic and one-man company. Now its host is a graphic design studio and publisher Workroom. So I work hard and cheerfully as their employee during business hours. In my spare time, I do Min Guhong Mfg. (That’s why most of the products are simple or easy.) Sometimes, of course, the line between the two become blurry. Before, when I got off work, I would hang out with my friends, watch TV or movies, or read some books. But nowadays, I play PlayStation a little and think about Min Guhong Mfg.’s tomorrow until I go to sleep.
Q: What kind of music are you listening to during work?
Min: I don’t always listen to music while I work, but when I do, I choose some. For example, Laurel Schwulst, my friend in New York, sends me her own mixes occasionally. It contains a lot of music, but the songs I know are by Michael Jackson, Wham! and Tatsuro Yamashita. Japanese organ-violin duo Syzygys are also in my latest playlist.
Q: What tools are you using when designing/developing?
Min: inDesign CC, MAMP, and Sublime Text 3 with some packages.
Q: What does your work-process look like?
Min: It depends on the situation, but always starts from defining what the the problem I need/want to solve is. Translating a book Forget all the rules you ever learned about graphic design. Including the ones in this book. by legendary graphic designer Bob Gill into Korean (designed by Sulki & Min) lately, I learned more about the approach. I intend to practice it until I forget. Anyway the ambition of Min Guhong Mfg. is quite clear: Manufacturing good goods, excluding chemical and biological weapons, wiretaps and shower curtains.
Q: Your best piece of work?
Min: *Min Guhong Mfg.* that has lately launched Google Chrome Extension Burn before reading, and has started to tweet.
Q: Your worst piece of work?
Min: *Min Guhong Mfg.* unloved by any customers...
Q: Why do you have a Brutalist Website?
Min: This website is a new product manufactured by Min Guhong Manufacturing, and a gift for artists or graphic designers Sulki & Min’s September 5th. (But the meaning of the day remains unknown yet.) Its dimensions are responsive, and main medium is their website sulki-min.com. If you don’t know about the infra-flat, I recommend that you read this writing by Rhee Z-won.
Q: Who designed the website?
Min: Sulki & Min and Min Guhong Manufacturing, or vice versa.
Q: Who coded the website?
Min: Sulki & Min and Min Guhong Manufacturing, or vice versa.
Q: With what kind of editor?
Min: Sublime Text 3.