What Is Anpakk?

Anpakk is an online publication, or webzine, published by Ahn Graphics since Monday, August 7, 2023. It was first planned as a simple email subscription service, but, with unexpected help from AG Lab and after various twists and turns, it took this form. In short, Anpakk shares views of the inside and outside through people and conversations. “People” and “conversation” are its main hashtags, and each conversation forms an issue. What “inside and outside”—the meaning of anpakk—refers to bends this way and that. It might mean the two people talking, or their inner and outer selves. It might also mean inside and outside Ahn Graphics. Rather than rushing to introduce a path whose answers are already fixed, Anpakk will look around a world without correct answers, inside and out, to help you wander.

How Was It Made?

The signpost that helped establish Anpakk’s conceptual direction was Bogoseo\Bogoseo. First published on July 1, 1988, the magazine ran at Ahn Graphics until 2000. It was jointly conceived by Ahn Sangsoo, founder of Ahn Graphics and then a professor at Hongik University, and sculptor Geum Nuri, then a professor at Kookmin University. Originally intended as a quarterly, it never actually appeared on that schedule and was effectively irregular. Published in various forms from its first issue in 1988 to its seventeenth in 2000, it was known for experiments in Hangul typography that were radical for their time. Above all, however, “people” and “conversation” were always at its center. On the plastic wrapping of the first issue was a rather cute sticker that contrasted with the somewhat unsettling figure on the cover. In slanting letters, it whispered:

We respect the desire for newness. Price: 5,000 won

Thirty-five years have already passed since Bogoseo\Bogoseo began. Its two founders, then in their mid-thirties, are now over seventy. Perhaps Anpakk might look like issue eighteen of Bogoseo\Bogoseo, or the first issue of Bogoseo\Bogoseo 2. Unlike its predecessor, however, Anpakk can be read anytime, beyond the limits of time and space, as long as you are connected to the internet. It is also free.

Nevertheless, Anpakk respects everyone’s desire for nostalgia as well as newness. We also intend to keep in mind a passage from “Love You Inside Out”:

Our love has gained strength.
Too many lovers at one time.
It is not good for you.

Wait, What Is the Difference Between “AG” and “Ahn Graphics”? They Seem the Same, but Also Somehow Different.

A good point. Opinions still differ on this. “AG” is short for “Ahn Graphics,” and “Ahn Graphics” is the full form of “AG.” At the same time, “AG” can mean the head office in Hannam-dong, while “Ahn Graphics” refers to AG’s publisher and specialist design publishing brand in Paju Book City. In other words, within the organizational chart Ahn Graphics belongs to AG; outside it, they are one body. Anpakk uses “AG” and “Ahn Graphics” interchangeably, but what they refer to is more or less the same.

Who Actually Makes Anpakk?

AG has an unofficial “20 percent rule,” modeled on Google’s culture. It is a system that makes room for, and encourages, spending twenty percent of working time on personal projects, so that the pleasure they generate can benefit the remaining eighty percent. Anpakk is made by people who have devoted their twenty percent to it: Kim Seyoung, an Ahn Graphics marketer; Kim Hayoung, a planner in AG’s Content Business Division; Min Guhong, director of AG/Ahn Graphics Lab; Park Pureum, a planner in AG’s Content Business Division; Lee Juhwa, an Ahn Graphics editor; and Han Nuri, a designer in AG’s Design Business Division. Every Thursday, ahead of a pleasant Friday, we hold an even more pleasant meeting. We are often bound by our titles and positions, inside and outside the company, even when there is no need. Titles and positions do not matter much in making Anpakk. An editor or marketer may create a beautiful design; a designer may plan something or write a wonderful text. All it takes is an interest in Anpakk and the desire to do it.

Who Will You Talk With Next?

Beginning with Min Guhong, director of AG Lab, which helped make Anpakk, we plan to seek out people working at AG and inside and outside design. We will also ask our conversation partners for recommendations. It could be anyone whose inside and outside we are curious about. It could even be you, reading this now. So please do not be surprised or frightened if you unexpectedly receive an invitation to talk with Anpakk. Conversations appear in Anpakk in two forms: as stars twinkling in the night sky in the header and footer, and as vertical rainbows beneath them that respond to the mouse cursor and your fingers.

Is There Anything We Should Pay Particular Attention to in Anpakk?

Among the many interactions available in a web browser, Anpakk particularly loves scrolling. In each issue, countless insides and outsides come together as you scroll. At the end of a conversation, we present again, in large type, a punchline selected by Anpakk. For example…