Cultural Code & Flag Works
Cultural Code:
Designing Flags: Seoul x San Francisco Design Workshop 2025
Workshop Planning & Tutors
Daeki Shim x Chris Hamamoto
This workshop is an international collaborative project jointly conducted by students from Seoul National University (SNU) and the California College of the Arts (CCA). Its primary objective is to explore the unique cultural codes of Seoul and San Francisco and to visualize them through symbolic structures—specifically, the format of the flag.
Grounded in symbolic and cultural-theoretical perspectives, the workshop examines both the material and immaterial dimensions of urban culture, with particular attention to the duality of the visible and the invisible. By reinterpreting each city’s cultural codes into a structured visual language, the project seeks to render visible the complex emotional and experiential layers embedded within urban space.
Participants form interdisciplinary teams composed of students from both institutions, collaboratively analyzing the cultural codes and identities of each city through symbolic elements, typography, and graphic design. Through this collaborative process, a single flag is jointly produced as an integrated visual outcome. The project proposes a new relational context between urbanity, culture, and identity through visual media, while fostering dialogue between two cities shaped by distinct cultural backgrounds.
The completed flag works were exhibited at the San Francisco Art Book Fair in the United States and at 019 Ghent in Ghent, Belgium. Through these exhibitions, the workshop shared its research-based and practice-driven outcomes within an international context, providing a platform that expanded public engagement and cultural exchange.
Guest Critic for the Workshop
Sara Raffo (California College of the Arts)
Workshop Hosts
+ Seoul National University, California College of the Arts, DAEKI and JUN
Flag Works Exhibition
+ Exhibition Planning: Chris Hamamoto
+ Exhibition Period: July 10—13, 2025
+ Exhibition Partner & Venue: MSP Foundation, SF Art Book Fair
+ Host: Seoul National University
Cultural Code Exhibition
+ Exhibition Planning: Daeki Shim
+ Exhibition Period: July—September, 2025 (Two Months)
+ Exhibition Partner & Venue: 019 Ghent
+ Hosts: Seoul National University, California College of the Arts, DAEKI and JUN
