The emergence of pop art in the 1960s exerted a profound impact on integrating art into the real lives of the general public, which continues in the current area of culture of post-industrial society. Thus, this study aims to attempt the popularization and modernization of Korean images by applying the concept of pop art to the development of a national symbolic image. This study utilized Mugunghwa, Taegeukgi, and the Great Seal, which are national symbolic images that establish the identity of Korea through differentiation, universality, and visual formativeness. It then proceeded with the development of neo-pop art motives and patterns using national symbolic images from the standpoint of symbolism, mix-match, and repetitiveness from among the characteristics of neo-pop art. This study carried out pattern design by departmentalizing each characteristic according to the standpoint of neo-pop art through scribbles composed of the following: Signs, pictograms, and childlike characters; drawing simplification for symbolism; a mix of the East and the West; a mix of subfashion and subculture for mix-match; the repetition of lines, characters, and icons; and the exaggeration and grotesqueness of characters and icons for repetitiveness. This study is expected to serve as momentum for raising the cultural value of Korea and for the development of a pattern design capable of achieving worldwide competitiveness through the combination of the permanence and continuity of national symbols with the popular universality of pop art.

• 구본혜(중앙대학교 패션예술학과) | Bonhye Ku
• 김미현(중앙대학교 의류학과) | Mihyun Kim Corresponding author