SSBA

Photo by Kim Ji-Yang

How to become the “it” brand in Korea’s youth-dominated marketplace: timing, attitude, luck, whimsical humor, and a catchy name. Jang Yun-mi, the mastermind behind the SSBA brand, seems to have struck a magical balance between all those things.

SSBA (pronounced s’ba) is simply brimming with attitude. “The face of the brand is a character named SSBA,” the twentysomething Jang explains. Though she’s more willowy and sprightly in person, the character is loosely based on Jang herself: a short, shifty-eyed loudmouth who plays a myriad of musical instruments. In a country once supersaturated with the Korean version of icons like Hello Kitty, Doraemon, and other affable derivatives, it’s refreshing to see a brand with some bite.

SSBA’s products—stationery, soju sets, stickers, T-shirts—are usually adorned with illustrations of the main protagonist, SSBA, in genial surrounds, with acerbic sayings like “bitch-free zone,” “no excessive eating,” and “War is Not the Answer.”

“I used to design graphics for a corporation, but I got really sick of doing trendy, commercial graphic design,” says Jang with a crafty grin. “I started SSBA as a way of de-stressing. I used to sell my little hand-painted miscellany at flea markets and stuff.”

Image courtesy of SSBA

As luck would have it, the very corporation that Jang worked for (Ssamzie) gave her brand life. Ssamzie has a reputation for supporting up-and-coming Korean artists and designers, and SSBA didn’t escape notice. In 2005, SSBA was invited to exhibit and sell her projects at Ssamzie Gil in the Insa art district of Seoul. On a visit to the space in January, Theme’s editors had to wriggle through a throng of young girls (most of SSBA’s customers are female college students) to simply get through the doors. SSBA now has three store locations and is sold in chain bookstores throughout Korea. “Instead of just selling my art, it’s more fun for me to sell my art on little products people can use.”

All this success is not simply an accident of fate. SSBA and Jang are worldly and well-traveled. Jang is outspoken and articulate and uses SSBA as her soapbox, part of what makes the brand so popular. “We’ve organized a couple of anti-war rallies already; SSBA will be doing more things about the war and global politics,” she explains.

Image courtesy of SSBA

On her website, she recently posted pictures from the World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya. Jang likes to stir shit up, and the person she’d most like to meet is George Bush. “I have a lot of things to ask him,” she grins.

It’s not surprising that SSBA literally means “shit” in Korean. “I like the way SSBA sounds, it sounds cute. And people remember the name easily.”