The Prelude Exhibition of The First Shanghai Graphic Design Biennale – TopoPoster: International Poster Design Exhibition, after six months (June – December, 2025) of planning and preparation, was successfully held from December 13 to December 22, 2025. As one of the larger-scale exhibitions in recent years featuring an international selection of works in China, it showcased over 300 representative poster designs from 153 influential contemporary designers and studios active in the forefront of the field across 28 countries.
Becoming a Butterfly
The poster “Becoming a Butterfly” was created in 2024 as the official invited work for the 3rd Daegang Poster Festival. It was inspired by the song of the same title performed by the Sogang University band Kinxex, which won the Silver Prize at the 1980 TBC Youth Song Festival. The design explores the metaphor of transformation and concealment: the symmetry and camouflage pattern of butterfly wings are translated into typography by mirroring the Korean word “나비” (butterfly) and filling the inner space of the letter “ㅂ” with an additional “ㅁ,” evoking the eye-like motifs of butterfly wings.
The song itself carries a sense of ascent and trembling vitality. To visualize this, I drew upon the analog-digital interference aesthetics of the 1980s era, rendering the vibration of butterfly wings as graphic noise and distortion. In searching for the “yellow butterfly” mentioned in the lyrics, I wanted to root the imagery in something deeply local, just as the youth song festivals of that era were grounded in Korean identity. To achieve this, I used AI to generate a variety of butterfly graphics in a pattern-like, pointillist style, which were then reprocessed to create a darker, dreamlike atmosphere that mirrors both the song’s spirit and the experimental ethos of the Daegang Poster Festival.
JoongHyun Cho
duedance.com
@duedance_studio @joonghyuncho