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Kakao Entertainment unveils Korean Sign Language sign for brand

Published: 14 Aug. 2025, 15:56 Updated: 14 Aug. 2025, 20:27

LIM JEONG-WON
[email protected]

[KAKAO ENTERTAINMENT]

Kakao Entertainment unveiled an official brand sign in Korean Sign Language, created in collaboration with deaf participants, and released it in webtoon form on Thursday.

This marks the first official sign language expression for Kakao Entertainment’s webtoon and web novel brands.

The webtoon visualizing its brand names through sign language was made in collaboration with the deaf community, the company said Thursday.

It's the first time a webtoon and web novel company has used sign language in its content.

The sign language webtoon project began at the 20th Seoul Sign Language Festival with Kakao Entertainment and Kakao, the largest national cultural event for the deaf, held on June 14.

As an official partner and sponsor of the festival, Kakao Entertainment hosted an event with a name roughly translating to “Closer Together: Kakao Entertainment Sign Name Contest,” selecting and designing official signs for three entities — Kakao Entertainment, Kakao Webtoon and Kakao Page.

Submissions from participants were judged by a panel of deaf individuals and sign language experts who selected the winners, which were then adopted as the brands’ official sign names.

The signs were designed to be intuitive and reflect the linguistic experience of the deaf community.

For Kakao Entertainment, the expression begins with the fingerspelled consonant hangul character closest to the letter “k,” which represents both the brand’s initial and is used in messaging and gaming to represent laughter, drawn in a circular motion. This is followed by crossing both hands up and down in front of the chest to express joy, symbolizing the brand’s aim to deliver fun to global users.

Images from the webtoon created in the “Closer Together: Kakao Entertainment Sign Name Contest” [KAKAO ENTERTAINMENT]

The Kakao Webtoon sign shows one hand held as if it were a smartphone, while the other hand draws the kieuk and then swipes upward as though scrolling. For Kakao Page, the sign starts with the “k” fingerspelling placed against the palm to represent a book, and then the hands open to mimic the action of opening its pages.

Because brands without an official sign name require spelling out each consonant and vowel, these newly adopted signs are expected to make communication easier.

The 15-panel webtoon illustrating the signs was created by webtoon artist Summer, whose real name is Kang Hee-kyung, the illustrator and author of “Rainbow!” on Kakao Webtoon. Featuring characters from the webtoon, it conveys the meaning and value of visible language alongside the new signs, using the artist’s signature warm style.

The webtoon is available on Kakao Webtoon, Kakao Page’s Instagram and the Seoul Association of the Deaf’s website. A behind-the-scenes video of the Sign Language Festival is also on Kakao’s “Closer Together” campaign page.

Since 2022, Kakao Entertainment has donated Kakao Page gift cards worth 159 million won ($114,950) over four years to the Seoul and Gyeonggi Associations of the Deaf and the festival.

“We will continue to promote cultural accessibility in line with our ‘Closer Together, Kakao’ slogan,” said a Kakao Entertainment representative.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [[email protected]]