Memes, Music And Mummy Issues Influence The Works Of Graphic Designer Grace Hong
Created as a way to de‐stress and express their creativity, Grace Hong’s personal artworks are distinguished by the witty and humorous ways in which they present what could come across as rude messages.
By Keng Yang Shuen ,
There’s a wicked vein of wit that runs through this 29-year-old’s personal work. One print, for instance, depicts a bisected Bugs Bunny-ish rabbit accompanied by the phrase “split decisions”, while another series nods to the early 2000s with saucy graphics set as the wallpaper of a Nokia 3310, a wildly popular phone model among youths of the era. Everything possesses a vintage flair or – as Hong puts it – “looks like something from a grimy ’90s T-shirt”. And like many of such products of yesteryear, there’s also a good whiff of DIY – they (their preferred pronoun) manipulate clip art and old photos to achieve their desired outcome. Add those trademark sly quips and the resulting work is prime material for today’s irony-loving audience.
Here’s the thing: Before taking on a full-time graphic design job here in 2021, Hong was more a self-taught graphic design hobbyist with a keen interest in the scene. They had majored in architecture in school and were working in the editorial department of an architecture publication in Japan before the pandemic changed everything. “It was only then that I started being serious about graphic design and decided to post my artwork on Instagram, since it’s a free and accessible platform,” they say (their Instagram account: @gracehong.party). “After all, I was jobless, having returned home from a two-year stint at the magazine. It was the perfect storm to get into something cathartic.”
Some might say that Hong has come a considerable way since. Three months ago, they exhibited their artwork – prints and zines featuring their clever, vivid imagery – in public for the first time at the Singapore Art Book Fair, an experience they count as a career high. We think this marks only the start.
How did you first get into the field of graphic design?
"Initially, I was interested in pursuing graphic design in university but switched at the last minute to pursue architecture. Ultimately, after struggling and trying to be an architect, I switched career paths by trying to pursue (somewhat unsuccessfully) an editorial career, before switching lanes again to graphic design. I think it was rather unavoidable to return to graphic design – it was natural for me to lean into something I actually enjoyed."
How long would you say you’ve been in the field?
"I started being serious about graphic design during the pandemic. I had half a mind to post my artwork on social media – Instagram was free and accessible. I was jobless and had just returned home from a two-year stint working for a Japanese architecture magazine. It was the perfect storm to get into something cathartic. I have zero formal training in the discipline as this was very much a passion project – and I had the time and an idle mind."
How would you describe your aesthetic and your signature?
"My aesthetic possesses that grimy '90ss vintage T-shirt look while my signature is funny and rude."
Which graphic designer or work resonates with you and why?
"I think it’s too restrictive to say any one person or thing has resonated with me. While I take a more journal-like approach to my artwork as a means to document the present and see my artwork as screenshots of myself at that point in time, it’s more of the confluence of one’s experiences and the visuals you expose yourself to daily undergoing a transformation within yourself and then expressing that into an artwork. I like to focus on going against the grain of the 'grind' and being subversive. I use humour to distract from the rudeness of the piece but I don’t shy away from being rude – or offensive."
What are some misconceptions about graphic design you normally encounter?
"That it’s easy to do and shouldn’t cost too much."
Your works appear to incorporate a strong illustration element to them – why the heavy emphasis on illustration?
"I actually don’t illustrate, I use shapes, manipulating clipart and photos to achieve the desired outcome. The cliparts are often extracted from old, vintage, historic and religious documents and so it's really a weird distortion when presented with contemporary notions and ideas.
What would you say are your proudest achievements to date with your practice?
"I’ve only recently started to put myself out there and started to take my work somewhat seriously. So making prints of my artwork and going to the Singapore Art Book Fair 2023 was really a defining moment.
How have technological factors like AI affected how you work as a graphic designer?
"Social media is a doozy. I have a complicated relationship with it – between posting daily and posting 'good stuff', it’s quite a cycle of instant gratification and instant regret. AI is a rude gesture to the design community in general. It’s a dog's life out here, competing between demanding clients and an unethical copycat, so it's a real kick in the guts. Ethically, there is nothing ethical about AI, there is no ingenuity to the art it makes."
A version of this article first appeared in the July 2023 Graphic Design Edition of FEMALE