Bringing Characters to Life: From Sketchbook to Campus

Characters are at the heart of my storytelling — they’re my way of conveying emotion, narrative, and even social commentary. Since childhood, I’ve been captivated by the single-frame comics that appeared in my dad’s business magazines. Today, I find the same fascination in memes. With just one image, a few characters, and a short line of dialogue, these simple frames can capture an event or cleverly satirize a social phenomenon.

Inspired by this, I began creating my own fictional characters — each one alive in my imagination, carrying stories drawn from travels, observations, and dreams. They exist somewhere between humor and empathy, between reality and imagination.

Then one day, I wondered if these characters could make an impact beyond my sketchbook. I usually just have murmurs in my head and draw quietly, but a thought came to me:What if I could bring them to life on a larger scale? What if they could tell stories, voice complaints, or share little insights and jokes about our campus?

Soon, every corner I passed sparked an idea — a character with something to say. For this project, I created 32 characters in total, each displayed across the campus, transforming everyday spaces into miniature stages for storytelling.

Through them, I hoped to turn familiar places into moments of connection — where passersby might pause, smile, and see a piece of their own story reflected back at them.

The dialogues mainly revolve around campus life, and here I’m sharing a few highlights from the 32 characters.

From my previous blog, “Net Loss? Not on My Watch! – The Volleyball Vigilante’s Secret Web of Justice,” you might recognize what this character is referring to. It was created to commemorate my “Spider Project.” Even now, I find it amusing that people on campus still don’t realize both of these two projects came from me.