Those who are interested in art, design, or publishing may have heard of the name Min Guhong. While running the one-person company Min Guhong Manufacturing, Min works as an editor at Workroom and offers technical support not only to art institutions - Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul Museum of Art, Art Sonje Center, and more - but also to cultural programs, fashion brands, and even detective agencies.

Min has conducted various projects such as exhibition, writing, translation, and education, but in this interview, he focuses on “the Web.” Interestingly, like “a web,” the interview weaves multiple subjects, not only computer and coding, but also literature, writing, editing, art, and design. Min says that a website is one of the products of his writing. Then, how does he - an admirer of hyperlinks, a believer in ricotta cheese, and the inventor of a pink mumbling creature - perceive web design?

(I recommend you to check the hyperlinks in the article while you are reading it. They serve as important anchors for the text, and probably they might make your day. If you have further questions, please check “Frequently Asked Questions” on the official website of Min Guhong Manufacturing.)


Q. I’m curious about the moment when you became interested in web design.

A. In 1991, when I was seven years old, I encountered a computer for the first time. It was a Macintosh LC, and it still looks great. From then on, I gradually developed fantasies about computers. When I was eleven years old, I made my first website at Yahoo! Geocities, the free web hosting service. It was for my crush. By creating stories, images, and even MIDI music to make her happy, I caught a glimpse at the relationship between content and technology. However, in 1999, when the dot-com bubble burst, Yahoo! suddenly shut down Geocities, and so the website only resides in my mind now. It was a time when we did not even know what a backup was. Since then, it has been a long-time pleasure for me to create things with computer languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for other people. And, of course, I do this for my own sake.


Personal website on Yahoo! Geocities (source: jefzila)

The Geocities-izer. It converts any website into Geocities’ style.

Q. Websites are usually organized so that their information can be understood at a glance, but the websites constructed by Min Guhong Manufacturing are quite unconventional. The information is often scattered or covered up by visual effects, and sometimes appears gradually on the screen. Interactive elements that respond to clicks and touches are also interesting. Why do you create this kind of design?

A. I do this not for my personal desires, but rather as the result of a search for the right format for my content. In fact, these peculiar styles of websites have already existed since the early days of the web. When the web was first introduced, people created personal websites in various ways. Because technology was limited and visual norms had not been established yet, people presented their content in whatever ways they wanted. This is why trends like “brutalism” that bring back early web designs seem not bizarre but familiar to me. The websites created by Min Guhong Manufacturing are also variations and reinterpretations of familiar forms. Unconventionality exists because conventionality exists.


Detour Dance. Collaborative work by artist Kim Jisun and musician Park Minhee. Fragmented interviews are played by reacting to the desires of audiences, and ASCII Art related to the content appears. Currently not open to the public.

What is Poetry. A website for Daum Poetry Festivalhosted by young poets. The web asks audiences, “What is poetry, or what is it not.”The white answers from audiences fill out the black background.


Alternative Space LOOP. The big letter ‘L’ and two letters ‘O’ represent the incompleteness implied in the space’s name.

By recommendation of Choi Sungmin from Sulki and Min, I once translated the bookForget All the Rules You Ever Learned About Graphic Design: Including the Ones in This Book, written by American graphic designer Bob Gill. According to Gill,“[i]nteresting words require boring graphics. Boring words require interesting graphics.” This means that the balance between words and graphics is essential. I prefer interesting words over interesting graphics. As a result, I spend more time considering how to handle the words. In fact, Min Guhong Manufacturing produces websites by applying basic technology. Anybody can do this by looking at the source codes. The reason that the websites seem so unconventional might be the words, not the graphics. If the words alone seem bland, I add motions or sequences to support them.


Bob Gill. Forget All the Rules You Ever Learned About Graphic Design: Including the Ones in This Book. Workroom Ghost, 2017. Graphic design textbook and collection of works by Bob Gill. Experimental Jetset, a graphic design studio in the Netherlands, regards this book as its Bible.

Q. Min Guhong Manufacturing was launched with an introduction (About Us) on the AVP Lab in 2015. Unlike other introductions, it introduced the company by describing what it “does not do.”

A. At that time, I had no idea what to do (and I still don’t), so I decided to describe what the company “does not do.” I also believed that, for a business, “what not to do” was more important than “what to do.”


About Us. AVP Document No.13. It lists 37 kinds of work that Min Guhong Manufacturing does not do.

Q. However, the introduction also says that Min Guhong Manufacturing “focuses on introducing the company, Min Guhong Manufacturing, in various ways.” I would like to know why you are so interested in this idea of the “introduction.”

A. Behind every creative activity, there is a beautiful and special desire to introducea certain object or even the creator themself. In any endeavor, we have to introduce ourselves anyway. I believe one can start a story just by focusing on that work. Min Guhong Manufacturing is the product of a heightened consciousness and stylization of this desire to introduce. Besides, the web is a great tool to introduce something to a lot of people at once.


Frequently Asked Questions Only for Kaywon University of Art and Design. A website for a special lecture for graphic design majors. Song Soogeun, the president of the university, appears on the website and exchanges questions and answers.

Q. Min Guhong Manufacturing was initially supported by Ahn Graphics and has been under the auspices of Workroom since 2016. Are there any difficulties? I wonder how much autonomy is guaranteed.

A. Parasitism is the main survival strategy of Min Guhong Manufacturing. Around 2015, when the company was founded, there was a trend among creators to set up independent studios. I wanted to go with the flow, but due to a lack of capital and courage, I decided to start at Ahn Graphics, which I was a part of. I was able to use the goods and properties of my “host” as much as I wanted by providing my labor and some fun things to do in exchange. The same goes for Workroom, too.



The official website of Workroom. One can view its 15 years of works in two formats by applying various filters.

Workroom, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year, is a for-profit company, but as the name suggests, it is also a “workroom” where producers gather and participate in multiple fields. As long as I finish my tasks within the working hours, Workroom allows me - in fact, actively encourages me - to pursue outside activities such as exhibitions, lectures, and writings. For example, editor Kim Nuiyeon works as an artist with former Workroom designer Jeon Yongwan and runs the publishing agency Oemil. Also, designer You Hyunsun is a member of Filed, a photography-based project group.




Working Hours. The clock introduces tasks to do within the working hours. It has been installed at the Seoul Museum of Art to guide the exhibition.

Paradoxically, this flexible work environment, in which employees can leave at any time without being completely yoked to the company, brings energy to Workroom. This space also inspires me because it is difficult to find a studio working in so many areas: publishing, directing, editing, design, website construction, software production, and education. I think this is the reason that Workroom has survived and not fallen behind. Needless to say, having a healthy host is the best thing for Min Guhong Manufacturing. In 2020, two other companies offered takeovers with exceptional deals, but I decided to stay at Workroom.


Min Guhong Manufacturing Clock. The numbers on a clock are not important to Min Guhong Manufacturing.

A business card of Min Guhong Manufacturing. Collaborative work with graphic designer Gang Moonsick. The information was engraved on the stone, and the notice saying “Take as many as you want!” was attached to it. However, since it weighed more than 100 kilograms, it could not be withdrawn even after the exhibition ended. Therefore, there was no choice but to keep it at the place.

Q. Are there any reasons that you studied literature and linguistics rather than computer science in college? How did it affect the process of creating websites?

A. When I was in high school, I tried to get into a fine arts college, but I had no talent for art exams, and most of all, my parents, who would have had to pay my tuition, were not happy about it. Still, I possessed a kind of vanity as an artist, so I chose creative writing instead. It seemed impressive and practical to create something using only letters from start to finish. Besides, it was good for me to learn how to read and write better, so I thought it would be helpful in many ways.

Self-Introduction. The pleasure of updating one’s profile line by line can be a motivation for life.

Coding is a form of writing. The only differences are that we communicate with a computer, not a person, and that the outcome is not what we traditionally define as a text. However, a computer is not as generous as a human. If there is a typo, or, if the spacing is incorrect, it immediately stops functioning. Just as awkward and messy texts might irritate you, unorganized codes give negative effects on a computer. In this sense, I think I hve benefited from a college education in reading and writing. Studying pragmatics in linguistics was especially helpful. I cannot imagine what things would have been like if I had studied art or design. If I had studied computer science, I would have become a slightly faster typer.


Frequently Asked Questions. Writing in a format of “FAQ” in general corporate websites. This interview will also be updated in this place soon.

I do not think that I design websites but write and edit texts in a way that I prefer and am good at. A website is one possible outcome of this work, and it somehow fulfills someone’s desires. HTML and CSS are languages that I am most fluent in after Korean, English, and Japanese. They are the basic computer languages used in web design. Although they seem quite simple, the more you delve into them, the more they make you think about coding as a form of writing.

Q. It is interesting that you have also learned various techniques such as tying knots, Ikebana, and design, through Google.

A. The web is another school for me. Even though there is a lot of misinformation, it is a part of the learning process to sort out the right ones. Of course, I learned design by interacting with skillful producers at Ahn Sangsoo’s lab, Ahn Graphics, and Workroom. Translating the book, Forget All the Rules You Ever Learned About Graphic Design: Including the Ones in This Book, was also a great learning experience for me.


Q. You studied computer programming at the School for Poetic Computation (SFPC) in New York. I heard that it was founded by artist Choi Taeyoon and other creators including poets, programmers, designers, mathematicians, and inventors. What did you learn there?

A. I heard about that school around the time I left Ahn Graphics. I liked the school’s name, which combines two mismatching words “Poetic” and “Computation,” and poet Kenneth Goldsmith, whom I admired, used to give lectures at the institution. Unfortunately, he was not there when I was in school.

I took general and practical classes in art and computer science from 9am to 6pm. If there was a special lecture or workshop, my schedule ended late at night. I had to be in school on weekends to keep up with the courses and learn within short periods of time. I especially paid attention to a class by Nick Monfort, a poet and professor of digital media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The students also came from various backgrounds: there was a white hacker, criminology graduate student, architect, dancer, electronic musician, and more. For example, my coding conventions teacher used to be a baker in France. I texted her a few days ago and found out that she has been obsessed with making kaymak these days.



However, the school is not for beginners. You have to be at least familiar with computer languages to follow the classes. The school actively uses the internet as a learning tool. When teachers give a hint to the solution of a problem, students use it as a starting point and explore the internet, acknowledging both their desires and their technological limitations, and devising bypass strategies. It is not about the technology itself; it is about knowing what kind of technology to utilize, and how.

As the name of the school suggests, poetry and programming share many similarities, in the sense that there is a poetic perception (function) between a poetic object (input) and a poem (output). I realized this relationship more clearly when I was in SFPC. That’s why I prefer to say that I studied literature and linguistics in the narrow sense, rather than computer programming, in this school.

At the same time, there was a New York-based movement to rethink the increasingly complex web technology from the very start. Also, active discussions about the content-oriented web were taking place among graphic designers. I gained courage by interacting with these friends who put their thoughts into practice. I also met Laurel Schwulst around this time, who asked me to introduce her as my “best American friend.” She is at the center of the movement I explained earlier.

Laurel Schwulst. She is a graphic designer, writer, and educator who conducts projects about the internet and web.

Q. We often find broken hyperlinks of websites created just a few years ago. It is difficult to maintain websites permanently. How can we overcome this limitation?

A. The website is a powerful yet fragile medium. You cannot touch it, and it is impossible to access without a web browser. Besides, it costs money to run the server of the website. There have been several attempts to improve these situations. For example, when you use Beaker Browser, your computer becomes both a client and a server. In other words, information can be exchanged among users without going through a certain server. It is similar to BitTorrent, in which data becomes fragmented and shared. It is a combination of the website and Peer-to-Peer technology that seeks the decentralization of the internet.



Like software, a website is perpetually in its beta version. Unlike prints, which cannot be modified once they are printed, a website can be edited and reorganized at any time. I think that the continuation of a website depends on its creator. For instance, the world’s first website has been in operation for over 30 years, with no change in its content and form. Therefore, it is difficult to generalize and say that websites are short-lived.

Q. How do you handle technical problems when creating a website?

A. If there are those who quickly adopt the latest technologies, and those who expand upon and dig into the basics, Min Guhong Manufacturing falls into the latter category. Because the company relies on Workroom, it tends to use methods focusing on typography and concepts in graphic design. Also, since the company is not as big as Google or NAVER, technological limitations clearly exist. I try to perceive this situation accurately and devise the best solution possible. From my experiences with several projects, most problems have been solved using basic techniques. Of course, this comes with the prerequisite that content must be handled properly.



thisisneverthisisneverthat. This website archives almost everything that the fashion brand thisisneverthat has created over the span of 10 years. It also served as a database system for the printed work.


HOMEWORK. The performative platform of the Art Sonjae Center during the pandemic.

Q. Do you have any favorite websites?

A. One is the world’s first website created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Its content is so elegant and practical that I would translate them even if it takes great effort. It also features humor. Moreover, it has been operating flawlessly for over 30 years. This website clearly represents what Min Guhong Manufacturing stands for.


I also like the official website of Hiroshi Abe, a Japanese actor. In 1996, he decided to use a fanmade website as his official homepage, and it has been maintaining its form to this day. It seems like the website was made by someone who was new to this technology, but it is still being updated with the latest news. It also contains information that is hard to find, such as photos and essays from the past. I once contributed an article about this website on the 24th issue of Littor.


Both websites have an aura that is difficult to describe because it is produced by the amount of time that has accumulated on them. Wouldn’t these websites prove that content can dominate design? The websites of Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries and Yang Haegue are other examples. If the content itself is practical and beautiful, style may not matter much.

Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries

To Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries. It is a letter, written by Min Guhong Manufacturing, with love and respect, but there has been no reply yet.

Q. There are 113 tags in HTML5, the standard version of HTML. Which of these tags is your favorite?

A. The <a> tag. It creates a hyperlink that connects one piece of content to another. It is like oxygen to humans, and it makes the web what it ought to be. It is also an iconic tag that differentiates printed materials from websites. Footnotes, marginal notes, and endnotes in prints have acquired a new status on the web thanks to the <a> tag. The letter “a” refers to the word “anchor,” which means that, when you click a hyperlink, you drop an anchor to a website and move somewhere else.


The website of the musical duo HAEPAARY. The user descends into the deep sea and encounters sentences about music, the web, and jellyfish.


* Link to the original text: 
https://blog.naver.com/designpress2016/222457770116

* Link to the next article: 
https://saddallar.xyz/Min-Guhong-Manufacturing-2