Horang makes cutlery, and almost nothing else. The brand describes what it makes as jogak (조각), a carved piece or small sculpture, for everyday life, and states its design philosophy plainly: design must be a part of its environment. The catalogue follows that line. Spoons and chopsticks in table, dessert, regular, mini and tea sizes, a slim chopstick line the brand calls its redefined essential, serving chopsticks, and the Arch Knife. Most pieces are offered in silver, gold, black and matt, so the range varies by surface rather than by shape.
Everything is made in Korea, by metalworking shops in Ansan, the industrial city south of Seoul where the brand itself is based, inside the district given over to plating. Pieces are formed and finished by hand across dozens of separate steps, and the coatings that give each edition its color and its resistance to scratching come from the work of Bae Myeong-jik, a nationally certified master of metal surface treatment.
The brand keeps a flagship shop in Seochon and is carried at D&Department Seoul and a handful of other Seoul design stores. Its cutlery is laid at Korean fine-dining rooms and at the Grand Hyatt Seoul, which commissioned a custom line for its teppan counter. Horang also runs The Article, an ongoing series of collaborations with artists, designers and restaurants, and has shown at Wako in Ginza.
