MYKC's Osulloc wayfinding lets Jeju's tea fields lead the signs (interview)

Mass Studies' Tea Factory, Salmok Architects' Tea House and a WGNB-fitted Tea Library sit on one vast Jeju plantation under Osulloc's master plan; first-time visitors could not tell the buildings' hierarchy apart, so the graphics had to make one legible journey without disturbing the landscape.

Wayfinding that gets out of the way: four sign points topped with simplified building icons, volcano-soil brown throughout, and an exclusive tea packaged like a book.

MYKC designed the road-entry pylon, parking and route signage; frames on the Tea House's corrugated steel walls were sized to the rib rhythm and bead-blasted matte so they read as always having been there; sign density was cut to four points, each topped with an architectural icon; the Tea Library got a custom serif with book-like terminals, a library-card site guide, and HOJI tea packaged as a book with a neon-green side.

No visitor metrics recorded; the newly opened Tea Library launched with this identity, and the four-point sign system now guides the whole factory-library-house journey. Per the interviewees, the signs are meant to be read as part of the landscape rather than noticed as design.

In a Design Plus (design.co.kr) interview, MYKC principals Kim Yongchan and Kim Kimum walk through the studio's signage and graphic system for Osulloc's Jeju Hannam tea plantation. MYKC had worked with parent Amorepacific since 2015 — the 2023 Osulloc rebrand, Tea Museum and Seoul tea-house graphics — and, having done the Tea Factory's entrance signage at its 2024 completion, asked to join when the visitor buildings were added.

The system deliberately recedes, the interviewees say. Sign density was cut from a dense layout to just four points so the borrowed scenery (chagyeong) stays the protagonist; each signpost carries simplified architectural icons of the Tea House, Tea Factory, Tea Library and observatory so visitors read destinations from afar. On the Tea House's corrugated steel walls, bolt positions were limited, so frames were sized and spaced exactly to the rib rhythm and bead-blasted to a matte finish that contrasts the glossy steel.

A deep brown drawn from Osulloc's volcanic soil and the Volcano Songyi tea unifies poles and frames across the site. Inside, the Tea Library received its own serif typeface — column weights matched to the shelf grid, classical terminals — a library card doubling as a guide to the whole campus, and the exclusive HOJI tea packaged like a book with a fresh neon-green side; embroidered insects that actually live on the plantation (Chinese peacock butterfly, ladybug, firefly), proposed by Osulloc, add a note of discovery to the archive space.

The three buildings were built at different times with different structures and materials, so MYKC mediated them with one journey rather than forcing one visual template on all.

Early plans packed signs tightly so visitors would not get lost across the 150-meter, hilly site; walking the site with Osulloc reversed that into fewer, farther-readable signs.

Osulloc's brand attitude, as the interviewees read it on site, weights depth over visual flash — so graphics serve quietly behind the tea fields and buildings.

Signage on corrugated steel had to negotiate fixed bolt points; matching the grid exactly is what lets it appear native to the wall.

On a site whose asset is scenery, the strongest graphic system is the one that subtracts itself: fewer signs, matched materials, and icons that do the pointing.

The Tea Library has opened with this identity, and MYKC continues as Osulloc's long-running graphic partner. The interview records no visitor figures or commercial results; the design's stated proof is the site itself — signs that read as part of the landscape.