The Realistic Human Look

It's time for the humans.
Collections of pigs, rats, sea creatures, and other trade characters have been featured on Korea & Animation. Now, it's the humans' turn. Specifically, realistic human characters.

There's an aesthetic in Korean advertising and trade character design that calls for realistic looking human characters. This "realistic human look" features humans who aren't very cartoon-like, but aren't completely photo realistic either. That dermatologist/urologist above must be based on a real doctor, right? He seems too imperfect to be fabricated.

Here's another doctor. The realistic human look is employed often with doctors. Maybe because it's important to display authority. Authority would be lost if the character design was goofy looking or overly cute.

Using these characters presents a friendly face and the realistic human look establishes that this face belongs to a real person.

Of course, that real person has blemishes and imperfections that are glossed over by this aesthetic. The face of a real doctor on an advertisement could be a little jarring and make the message less appealing.

This pizza place trade character is more realistic than the doctors. Maybe too realistic. Kim Sung Rae must be a real person who this pizza place is named after.

Here's a trade character featured at a popular kimbab restaurant. She seems friendly and familiar, like the kind of woman you'd meet working at any given kimbab place.

Here's another restaurant's realistic trade character. Of course, he's giving the thumbs up, which is a ubiquitous gesture for trade characters regardless of species.

Don't you feel like you know this guy? He seems awfully familiar. A little like your wild co-worker isn't he?

Since he's the trade character for a chicken and hof place, his face needs to communicate the fun you'll have after a long week at work.

A fun part of the realistic human look is that the body doesn't need to follow the rules of the head. Whereas the head is mostly realistic, the body can be unrealistically scrunched up so that it fits into the overall design.

Here's where this aesthetic gets really fun. Realistic humans can be paired up with unrealistic animals. Even if a little strange, that's really squeezing the best out of all aspects of character design. Imagine how more strange it would be if that octopus was designed to look realistic!

Rat in Hanbok

Here's a rat wearing hanbok.
Happy, rosey cheeked, and not a care in the world!

Here's a rat NOT wearing hanbok. Oh my! What a difference!

Which of these rats do you think got the better advertising gig? Rats are in hot demand this year, being that it's Year of the Rat.

The rat wearing hanbok must have a better agent. He gets to wear hanbok, traditional Korean clothing, usually only worn on special occasions. He gets to wear it out in the nice open air.

This poor rat is forced into a dimly lit subway station with nothing to wear at all! He really should talk to his agent.

You Can't Do That On The Subway!

Seoul has a magnificent public transportation system: the subway. With so many people riding the subway daily, simple rules need to be set to assure the comfort of all passengers.

What better way to communicate these rules than through cartoons? Cartoons can lay down the law of the subway without coming across as being overly harsh. They also aren't boring.

The following images come from four campaigns using cartoons to teach subway passengers common courtesy.

Campaign 1:

These images are taken from various public service announcements placed on the subway.

This guy looks like he enjoys causing others discomfort. How rude!

I feel sorry for this poor big guy. Maybe it's not his fault he's bow-legged and has to sit like that.

Yikes! I hope this image doesn't plant any bad ideas in anyone's head.

This campaign proudly brought to you by KORAIL.

Campaign 2:

This public service announcement was placed on the wall of the subway station.

Here's a closer look.

This simple message brought to you by Seoul Metro.

Campaign 3:
This poster was displayed on a subway station wall. Here are closer views of what's on them:

The subway station man in the last three images seems to really dislike confrontation.

This campaign humbly brought to you by Seoul Metro.

Campaign 4:
This large illuminated display was also placed within the subway station.

Check out the zigzag line being used to represent yakking.

This last campaign brought to you by Seoul Metro. Peace out!

Which of the four campaigns do you like best?

I pick Campaign 1. Why? First of all, the cartoon characters effectively convey the intended message. Unlike Campaign 4, they aren't drawn so loosely that they lose their believability as living characters. And unlike Campaign 3, they aren't drawn so rigidly that they are trapped in a limited range of emotions. When I see these characters, I know exactly what they are feeling and what I'm not supposed to be doing on the subway. Second of all, the layout of the images are really good. The images read easily from a distance. The layout in Campaign 2 seems cluttered and a bit confusing. I think the artist behind Campaign 1 is excellent!

What do you think?