Korean Mafia Poster
Promotional poster for a student thesis film about a high-stakes heist of stolen test scores, designed in direct collaboration with the director. South Korean iconography, bold typography, and a high-contrast palette brought the film's edgy, cinematic energy to life.
Category
Film Thesis
Client
Personal / Collaborative
Date
The brief was a vibe. The poster delivered.
Korean Mafia is a student thesis film with a high-stakes premise, a heist centered on stolen test scores, with an aesthetic drawn from anime and films like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The director envisioned a promotional poster that communicated the film's tone: edgy, cinematic, and visually bold enough to stand out.
The design process was collaborative, working directly with the director to understand the film's visual references and narrative themes. South Korean iconography became the conceptual foundation. The flag's geometry reoriented, its color symbolism carried through, and the taeguk reimagined as the base for the film's central graphic element. Typography was treated as a graphic element as much as a way to carry meaning, reflecting the film's mix of English and Korean text.
A stylistic crossover
The collaboration stayed close throughout, starting from the director's vision and refining through rounds of feedback until the poster felt right. The poster served as promotional material for campus screenings, representing a project that went on to win awards that year.
