Heidi Choi world
✶ National ADDY student GOLD 2026 ✶
Don’t DE SIDE My Identity
Typographic Protest Poster Series
Don’t DE CIDE My Identity is a protest-based visual project that began with the question:
“How can design create social change?”
While living in the United States for nearly four years, I experienced how often people assumed my identity before even asking where I was from. Many greeted me with words like “Arigato” or “Xie Xie,” reducing Asian identity into a single stereotype.
This project became a response to those experiences and an attempt to preserve my identity as a Korean living in America. It also encourages viewers to approach cultural differences with greater awareness and respect.
To communicate this visually and educationally, I combined Korean characters with English typography to create a new visual language. Inspired by Google Translate’s “sounds like”feature, the posters include Korean pronunciation guides that allow viewers to read and interact with the language directly.
Strong contrasting colors, distorted typography, layered compositions, and experimental graphic elements were used to express the discomfort of having one’s identity defined by others. Rough textures and analog-inspired graphic treatmentswere also incorporated to bring a personal voice into the digital compositions.