The Untold Story of Min Hee Jin

if you only recognize minhan as the creative director behind the visual branding of K-pop groups such as shiny FX and red velvet or as the individual involved in a dispute with hybe you're overlooking a significant part of her story minhen was born in 1979 in Soul and she showed interest in art very early on as basically all her family members are artists her grandfather Drew and her younger siblings all majored in visual design and directing minhan herself was interested in becoming an audio producer when she was little so she joined her school's broadcast Club however despite considering other paths outside of art she couldn't abandon her passion for it leading her to ultimately enroll in art school then during her University years she got interested in advertising so she had a one-year internship at an advertising company it was during this time that it showed just how driven she was because she was the only third-year student at her internship while the others were fourthe students of the graduating class after graduating with a degree in visual design minhan ended up getting a job in advertising and she liked it as she enjoyed the creative and dynamic atmosphere however she still felt a sense of incompleteness because she aspired to work as a designer and share her artwork her opportunity arose when she stumbled upon an announcement about sm's open Recruitment and applied according to her even though she particularly didn't have an interest in pop music she found herself Charmed by the area of album designs although she didn't like pop music it made her even more interested in the job as she said it was vague but what I like and I wanted to show the general public something new and she managed to do just that she officially joined sm entertainment in 2002 as a graphic designer in a relatively new Department later she was promoted to the role of creative director where she supervised projects encompassing stage design music videos and packaging design minhan explained that making album designs wasn't just about making them look nice it meant understanding what the musician or production wanted this approach helped her create new things gradually as for how she started getting involved in stage outfits minhan explained that she proposed an overall concept that the company found appealing as a result they entrusted her with overseeing the general visual Direction including stage outfits and it was really great for her since she disliked the separation between album Concepts and Stage outfits so she began developing a new process to connect Concepts stage performances and other elements and you can see that this approach started around the time of Super Junior's sorry sorry girls Generations G and continued with shiny FX and EXO debuts if you want to know more about how iconic she is let's talk about her process of producing a stage outfit as she expressed in an interview she explains her desired concept to The Stylist and shares ideas to enhance it for example coordinating white t-shirts and jeans or the colored skinny jeans sets the iconic uniforms for Genie the skinny jeans for shiny and school uniforms for FX yes she is the one who's responsible for the historic colored jeans that Girls Generation wore in the G music video then she suggests key items that represent the initial concept and asks The Stylist to procure them finally she collaborates with the stylist to develop a detailed plan for outfit production just so it can show the concept now let's discuss her work with Girls Generation she said that when she pitched the idea for Girls Generation before their 2007 debut she wanted to capture the essence of girls in a broader sense instead of just portraying them as innocent or bubbly she aimed for a fresh and healthy school girl image that suited their age this idea came to life in girls generation's debut single into the new world when it comes to G we have already mentioned skinny jeans but there's a lot more we have have to say besides the color jeans the entire concept at that time was quite groundbreaking previously girl groups were expected to have an unrealistic and unattainable appearance however minhan shattered this image by giving Girls Generation a friendly and downto Earth look dressing them in plain shirts and jeans with naturalook makeup as for the process she chooses outfit concepts by matching them with the first image that comes to mind after hearing the song for instance she created the legendary uniforms for Genie and a cheerleader concept for o in the same way after hearing Run Devil run she got the image of Jessica Alba in the film Sin City and the bond girl image from hoot for the boys she went for a heroin concept to align with The Confident lyrics and music unlike their previous coordinated outfits this concept emphasized each member's individual charms and preferences but still had matching uniforms each member also had the freedom to switch up their costumes by wearing skirts hot pants pants capes and jackets which had some amazing results another iconic concept of hers was fx's pink tape once she heard the title song she knew that she had to show a side of the group that the fans hadn't seen before so she told SM that she wanted to create a film as a next concept she recalled symbolically I wanted to say let's make a pink VHS I also gained influence from the title and design to decide on pink tape she continued by saying that through FX she wanted to Showcase a unique beauty that isn't conventional so she set the initial Concept in that direction and for pink tape she wanted to reveal fx's own Love Story minhan explained that since everyone has their own unique love story she wanted to VIs visually explore the secrets of first loves in a distinctive way this is also why the members wore school uniforms or outfits that were reminiscent of uniforms regarding the overall mood hair and makeup of the set she focused on creating a relaxed melancholic image and she nailed that this gets even more insane when you think that minhan didn't have a large budget for the project since it was her first time doing something like this in fact she hired her own sibling as a director and her friends to help and according to her the atmosphere on set was great and everyone was having fun she was reol ution AR even when she worked on EXO's growl minhan mentioned that the concept of boys with Supernatural powers from the exoplanet was initially proposed by Le Suman At first she found it intriguing but was concerned about how to execute it without simplifying it thus she crafted EXO's unique symbol and character to symbolized the exoplanet incorporating elements like planets and meteors ensuring that the symbol mirrored their personalities she tailored it to suit the group's concept though she was initially concerned about the concept feeling unfamiliar she found inspiration by envisioning how 12 boys suddenly arriving on Earth from an alien planet would adapt to life on Earth not only that but before k-pop's thirdd Generation boy groups mostly had this strong dark and bad boy image and did pretty similar Concepts minhan however changed things as with growl she portrayed the youthful days of teenagers as you know everything she does basically turns into a trend because after the exom members wore school uniforms in the music video the school uniform concept gained popularity among Idols what's more growl became one of the most successful K-pop songs of all time there's way too many Concepts that she has done that have changed the K-pop industry in general fx's Pinocchio and four walls red velvet's red flavor and peekaboo shiny story of light and NCT dreams chewing gum among many so knowing all this people were excited when she moved to hyve and was announced to be making her own girl group knowing that she would have full creative control over a group had people wondering what we would see from this girl group and like always minhan did not disappoint the members who were all in their teens when they debuted mostly wear t-shirts pants and sneak without heavy makeup or flashy fashion which we can see very often in K-pop girl groups no matter how young the Idols are their hair is dark and straight resembling ordinary teenage girls and their music videos show them doing ordinary teenage things and having normal teenage experiences having crushes playing around with friends going to the beach and making memories moreover their choreography won't conform to the usual sharp style but will exude a playful and organic flow resembling dancing with friends to energizing and exciting music and they have done a great job at it as for the songs they're easy to listen to and the public has absolutely fallen in love with them sure the concepts might draw people in but it's the music that makes them stay the nostalgic sound attracts older listeners despite the group's youthfulness which has made them one of the most popular groups in the industry according to her it's crucial that the members feel at ease during training and communication with producers instead of just assigning them a song to practice she organized listening sessions where members could share their thoughts after hearing the music recordings were made without a guide vocalist en ing the members to sing in their own unique Styles which is very important and a big part of why the public fell in love with them just as she said herself and ultimately managed to get done I want to make new jeans's music so that it will still sound really beautiful after 10 20 years you never throw away your favorite pair of jeans your favorite pair of clothing you can wear every single day if we were to discuss the full genius behind her work we would be here all day so it really doesn't matter what Hy claims or how K-pop stands claim that her work is unimportant it doesn't change the fact that the K-pop industry wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her so let's put some respect to her name for once because this is what she really did she changed K-pop forever

Channel: KOOKIELIT

Views: 40,380

Keywords: kpop, k-pop, kpop news, kpop opinions, KOOKIELIT, kookielit, kpop idols, react to k-pop

Id: j2tBnM0HqGk

Length: 8min 38sec (518 seconds)

Published: Mon May 06 2024