[Story]The Birth Story of Baemin’s Most Popular Font in Korea.

Baemin Dohyeon and Baemin Hanna Is Eleven Years Old 

 *This article was rewritten based on content originally created in 2016. 


Baemin, in collaboration with Sandoll, has produced and distributed various brand-specific fonts as free fonts available for anyone to use. These fonts have become widely utilized across publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries, earning the nickname "national fonts."

The notion of "Baemin creating fonts" might have seemed odd at first, but it has now become a signature representation of the Baemin brand. Today, we'll delve into Baemin Dohyeon and Baemin Hanna Is Eleven Years Old, which stand at the core of this initiative.

 
Background of Baemin Dohyeon

Dohyeon was inspired by a sign made from acrylic sheets cut with an acrylic knife, with the initial inspiration coming from a real estate sign in Itaewon's Usadan-gil. This sparked the overall planning and concept by the Woowa Brothers, who run "Baemin," and the development and testing of Dohyeon were carried out by Sandoll.

As the third brand-specific font of "Baemin," following Baemin Hanna and Baemin Jua — named after the children of CEO Kim Bong-jin at the time — the name Dohyeon was chosen through an internal lottery. The winning name, Dohyeon, belongs to the son of Kim Su-kwon, the representative of Baemin Riders.


 Features of Baemin Dohyeon

Dohyeon boasts a natural aesthetic that doesn’t conform to rigid grids. The connection of vowels and consonant finals, filling the square frame without any gaps, gives it a non-uniform feel. The uneven thickness of each letter and its unrefined naturalness are characteristics of Dohyeon.


The biggest attraction of  Dohyun is that the open type feature  function is applied for the first time in Korean font, and the shape of the consonants ㅅ, ㅈ, and ㅎ randomly changes depending on the conditions before and after.
*open type feature is You can check the features on Adobe programs such as Port Shop and Illustration.refining and restraining serif fonts.


  

The font was created with the concept of naturalness, where even characters of the same type do not have uniform sizes. This approach often resulted in awkwardness during the development process. Utilizing OpenType technology to adapt characters according to context presented challenges due to the vast number of Korean characters.

By identifying the most frequently used characters by "Baemin," a systematic approach was devised to gradually develop Dohyeon. This method allowed the completion of Dohyeon in a relatively short time to the satisfaction of many users.



Background of Baemin Hanna Is Eleven Years Old

The foundation for Baemin Hanna Is Eleven Years Old comes from Baemin Hanna, inspired by signboards from the 60s and 70s made by attaching vinyl sheets to acrylic boards and cutting out the letters. As "Baemin's" first brand-specific font, Hanna had issues with kerning and letter width due to its completely unrefined design, leading to a collaboration between "Baemin" and Sandoll for a font renewal.

The name Hanna, as mentioned earlier, was derived from the name of Kim Bong-jin's eldest daughter. The renewal coincided with Hanna turning eleven, naturally leading to the name Baemin Hanna Is Eleven Years Old. Doesn't the renewed Hanna Is Eleven Years Old convey a sense of growth, much like Hanna herself?

우리 「한나」가 달라졌어요 


 

Features of Baemin Hanna Is Eleven Years Old

Hanna Is Eleven Years Old underwent a renewal to correct the uneven spacing between letters, resulting in a more balanced form. The renewal also refined the harmony and balance between Korean and English letters to improve readability.


 

Hanna is a font with a distinct personality, characterized by its lack of thickness uniformity, balance, and regularity, contributing to its kitsch charm. The renewal process aimed to preserve this unique personality by minimizing modifications.

The focus was on correcting letters that significantly impacted readability or were drastically unbalanced. Finding a middle ground that retained Hanna's original concept while presenting a cleaner appearance was challenging. Suppressing the urge to make further adjustments as the project neared completion was not easy.