Drake's in Seoul: A Conversation with Dongmin Shin

A short drive from the polished streets/catwalks of Gangnam, late afternoon sunshine filtering through the taxi window, we arrive at a house that doubles as the headquarters of IAB STUDIO; the sort of manicured building that looks like it could be occupied by an affluent family with a small white dog and a new BMW.

Founded in 2013 by school friends Lim Sung-bin (a well-known rapper who goes by Beenzino), Shin Dong-min and Kim Han-jun, IAB, which stands for ‘I’ve Always Been,’ is what you might call a ‘design collective.’ They’ve made trainers with Asics, a suitcase with Samsonite and, recently, started designing uniforms for the Gwangju-based baseball team, the KIA Tigers. Walking down the aforementioned streets/catwalks of Gangnam, you’re bound to see a steady stream of young men and women in cleanly-branded IAB t-shirts, sweatshirts and general merchandise.

“In Korea, and maybe elsewhere, we’re seen as a clothes brand,” says Dongmin Shin, 1/3rd of the collective, a Seoul native who spent part of his childhood in Alaska, “but we started out designing album covers. The clothes we make have more of a uniform kind of character, as we initially made them for ourselves, not thinking that it would evolve into something bigger. We developed and focused on making a uniform, the sort of clothes that we’d want to wear.”

Dongmin is sat in one of the house’s bedrooms, which doubles as the company’s main office. “Big boss desk,” he says with a laugh, rapping his knuckles on the hardwood. The room is decorated a bit like a teenager’s bedroom… if they happened to run a very successful global design business. There are boxes of lego and a trophy cabinet filled with a handful of IAB’S coveted collaborations.

“We all studied sculpture at university,” he says, “I don’t think any of us expected a little project with our friends to turn into a real business, but now we have 11 employees, an office. I guess there’s a sense of pressure that comes with that, it’s complicated, but it’s fun to be a creator, and build something for ourselves."

“Fun is at the core of what we do. We have two rules. You can’t sleep in the office, and we don’t do anything that doesn’t feel fun.”