I had tried everything for my acne, but nothing really worked. So I thought, alright—I'll just make it myself. That turned into a 3-year rabbit hole: studying ingredients, making formulas from scratch, tweaking them over and over based on skin feedback. Along the way, I had the chance to work with a professor, which really helped me dive deeper into the whole process. My personal experience of creating skincare was the key that opened up that opportunity, and from there, I decided to really go for it. I sourced the raw materials, and sold the products on Naver, Coupang, and Wadiz.

It wasn’t just product development—it was market testing, storytelling, and survival mode all at once. Through that scrappy process, I realized something: even the best product doesn’t mean much if it doesn’t make people feel something. Presentation—how something is framed, how it resonates—makes all the difference.

That’s when I started paying attention to branding. Not just what something is, but how it’s curated, how it lands, and how people connect with it. I didn’t just want to make things—I wanted to shape how they’re experienced. That’s when I decided to become an art director.