{"id":101534,"date":"2016-05-25T11:43:24","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T15:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=101534"},"modified":"2017-01-26T14:13:41","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T19:13:41","slug":"khik-kim-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2016\/05\/25\/khik-kim-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduate profile: Khi Kim ’16, ‘sophisticated, evocative, and clever’ poster-maker nonpareil"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bates<\/a>

Bates dance poster for 2014 Parents & Family Weekend Dance Concert 2014.<\/p><\/div>\n

A great theater poster, says Bates theater director Kati Vecsey, \u201cmakes me want to rip it off the wall, frame it, and hang it in my house \u2014 but it should also make me want to see the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

From that perspective, posters created by Khi Kim \u201916 of Goyang, South Korea, have fueled larcenous passions while helping to fill Bates venues over the last four years.<\/p>\n

In 2012, Kim arrived at Bates to study biochemistry. He also had a graphic design background, and soon got a campus job designing posters for Bates theater and dance productions.<\/p>\n

In the four years since then, Kim has created some of the best and best-liked posters that the campus has ever seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis work is sophisticated, evocative, and clever,\u201d says Tammy Caron, senior designer and Kim\u2019s supervisor in the Communications Office.<\/p>\n

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A Creative Case Study: The poster for Wasteland<\/em><\/h3>\n\t\t
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\"Here<\/a>

Here are two versions of a theater poster for Susan Felder’s play Wasteland<\/em>. At left is one done by a Chicago-based theater company. At right is Khi Kim’s version for the Bates production in fall 2014.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Khi Kim\u2019s poster for Wasteland<\/em> does what a poster should, says Katalin Vecsey, senior lecturer in the theater program who directed the fall 2014 production of the Susan Felder play.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt catches your attention, gives you information that keeps your attention, but does not give the play or the artistic concept totally away.”<\/p>\n

As with her other poster project with Kim, Vecsey first asked him to read the play. Then, he reviewed the set design with Vecsey while they talked about her directorial and artistic concept.<\/p>\n

She also showed him a Wasteland<\/em> poster, on left above, that she did not care for.<\/p>\n

Vecsey says that she specifically asked for a poster that would not \u201creveal that there are really two people in the show, and that they communicate with each other over a wall. I wanted to keep it as a surprise for the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result, Vecsey says, was one of his best Bates posters ever. \u201cBy the way, Susan Felder also loved it,\u201d she adds.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

Vecsey, a senior lecturer in theater, has gotten used to Kim\u2019s posters \u201cdisappearing from campus even before a show opens \u2014 students take them for their rooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

And if Kim knows what students like, it\u2019s because he works at it; he\u2019s always in conversation with his campus and his fellow students. He calls it getting \u201cinspiration from real life.\u201d All day, he says, \u201cI have conversations\u201d with people around him, all the while thinking about design concepts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I talk with someone, I think to myself, \u2018What will this person want to see in the show and in this poster?\u2019\u201dBut also, Kim is paying attention to what the poster should say about the show. Emotionally, the two should align, Kim says. \u201cWe want people to arrive as emotionally ready as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\n\t

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Bates theater poster for Israel Horovitz's Stage Directions<\/em> by Khi Kim '16.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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Bates theater poster for Murder in Manhattan,<\/em> a murder-mystery game staged by The Robinson Players, by Khi Kim '16.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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Bates theater poster for Norman Corwin's They Fly Through the Air With the Greatest of Ease<\/em> by Khi Kim '16.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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Bates theater poster for Castle of Perseverance<\/em> by Khi Kim '16.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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Bates theater poster for Apollinaire's The Breasts of Tiresias<\/em> by Khi Kim '16.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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Born in Korea, Kim was educated in China before coming to Bates. Upon arrival, he decided to trim his dual interests in science and art down to just one. \u201cI thought, \u2018OK, now\u2019s the time.\u2019\u201d Yet, four years later, \u201cI\u2019m still doing both,\u201d he says, and it\u2019s been a win-win.<\/p>\n

For example, his senior thesis on RNA has drawn him into bioinformatics, a field that develops methods and tools to understand biological data. Bioinformatics puts a premium on visualizing information, and that\u2019s exactly what Kim has been training to do while designing posters.<\/p>\n

He says that his thinking has become \u201cmore visual, and that skill transfers well into science when I try to analyze a graph, imagine a structure in 3D, or use geometric shapes and patterns.\u201d<\/p>\n

He does it with an \u201cintuitive understanding of the concept-to-execution process,\u201d says Caron.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kim, known for his indefatigable charm, might hear from several Bates artists involved in publicizing a performance. It\u2019s a rigorous process; Professor of Dance Carol Dilley loves Kim\u2019s work but admits that her team \u201cmight reject one out of every three\u201d of his initial concepts for a dance concert poster.<\/p>\n

Each time, Dilley says, Kim comes back with either a revision that accurately reflects the client\u2019s feedback or with a completely new concept, whichever was requested.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

Kim thought he’d have to trim his dual interests, in science and art, down to just one at Bates. Yet he found that he could pursue both. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates Colleg)<\/p><\/div>\n

He does it with an \u201cintuitive understanding of the concept-to-execution process,\u201d says Caron. With deftness beyond his years, Kim \u201ckeeps the client\u2019s needs in mind while offering his own creative interpretation of their ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

It helps that Kim has command of a robust set of skills, from manipulating images, layers, and type to using line, composition, and scale play. He plays with various design elements to create both complex designs \u2014 such as the poster for They Fly Through the Air With the Greatest of Ease<\/em> \u2014 and, says Caron, \u201cincredibly powerful, yet simple statements,\u201d such as the Boxing 2000<\/em> poster.<\/p>\n

Early on, Kim says, he took rejection personally. (Really, who wouldn\u2019t, or doesn\u2019t?) \u201cI had a hard time processing it, thinking, \u2018Oh my god. What did I do wrong?\u2019 I felt embarrassed.\u201d<\/p>\n

His strategy now is to look at rejection as a difference of understanding, or perhaps just a failure to communicate. \u201cPeople think differently,\u201d he says. \u201cThere can be errors in communicating. Sometimes people just want different things. Rather than taking it personally, I see it as just differences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Dilley says, \u201cKhi has figured out, very young and very well, how to invest in the work but not invest in his attachment to the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Kim doesn\u2019t see the need to choose art over science, or vice versa. Adds Caron, \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019ll ever need to.\u201d<\/p>\n

He plans to work in Korea for a few years, then perhaps return to the U.S. for graduate work in informatics, \u201cwhere science and data visualization and arts all come together.\u201d<\/p>\n

We’ll keep you posted.<\/p>\n

This story appeared in the the Spring 2016 issue<\/a> of Bates Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Among the 461 seniors set to graduate Sunday is biochemistry major Khi Kim \u201916, whose theater and dance posters have fueled larcenous intentions while filling Bates venues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":101633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,133,11012],"tags":[2014,4932,10898,10433],"class_list":["post-101534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-creativity","category-student-life","tag-carol-dilley","tag-katalin-vecsey","tag-modern-dance","tag-slideshow-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101534"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101643,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101534\/revisions\/101643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}