“All the places you haven’t been are the future, the person you didn’t meet that day, the pages of the book you haven’t read”
On August 31, Kyobo Life Insurance’s Gwanghwamun Signboard was refreshed for autumn.
This season’s text was excerpted from poet Lee Moon-jae’s poem *Shangri-La*. Lee Moon-jae began his literary career in 1982 by publishing poems in the literary coterie magazine *Poetry Movement*. He has published poetry collections including *When I Take Off My Wet Shoes and Show Them to the Sun*, *A Walk in the Park*, and *The Remote Areas of the Heart*.
He previously won the 6th Kim Dal-jin Literary Award in 1995 for his poem *Tower Crane and Four Others*. In 2002, he received the 17th Sowol Poetry Award for *Autumn of the Earth*, and in 2007, the 7th Nojak Literary Award for his collection *Water’s Cross-Legged Meditation*.
This autumn’s signboard message conveys hope for the future, which holds infinite possibilities. It encourages people not to give up on unfulfilled dreams and to keep challenging themselves toward the future.
The autumn edition of the Gwanghwamun Signboard is created annually from the grand prize-winning design of a university student competition. A total of 816 works were submitted during the July 2026 *2026 Gwanghwamun Signboard University Student Design Competition*. Seven entries, including the grand prize, excellence awards, and encouragement awards, were selected.
Kyobo Life Insurance selected Sejong University student Jung Ho-yun, 19 years old, as the grand prize winner through a fair review process by experts, including university professors and designers. The winning design was used for this autumn’s signboard.
Jung said, “I aimed to capture the pure perspective of dreaming about one’s future, like when we wrote down our aspirations as children. I wanted to express the unlimited possibilities of the future through the metaphor of a blank white sketchbook and depict children freely drawing their dreams.”
The Gwanghwamun Signboard has been delivering messages of hope and love to citizens for 36 years since 1991. This autumn edition will be displayed for three months until the end of November at Kyobo Life Insurance’s Gwanghwamun Building, Gangnam Kyobo Tower, and Jeju headquarters.
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