Six guards protect BOYNEXTDOOR’s town: CATBBI (SUNGHO), DALRING (RIWOO), MYNGMYNG (JAEHYUN), HAN TATPUNG (TAESAN), 312 (LEEHAN), and WOONBABY (WOONHAK). Not only do they look just like the BOYNEXTDOOR members themselves, but the boys personally came up with the characters’ names, personalities, and interests. We talked to Oh Seungjae from the KOZ Entertainment Business Planning Part and Han Hyunji from the Design Part, both of whom helped with the planning and creation of the characters, for a behind-the-scenes look at the making of BBNEXDO, ONEDOOR’s beloved band of guards.

What was your main focus during the creation of BBNEXDO?
Oh Seungjae: We first started with the idea to turn the hand puppets in the “[HOW?] 'Between WHO and WHY'” video into new cartoon characters. We felt the fans had already built a connection with the puppets after seeing them, so we tried to hold onto their personalities and existing relationship with fans and then breathe new life into them as cartoon characters. When we thought about how that would tie in when expanding to merch later, the goal became for fans to feel a connection with the artists every time they saw the characters and collected the merch. To that end, we determined the most important thing was to strengthen the link between the characters and the artists, and we built our guidelines around that.

Han Hyunji: This project started off in a completely different way compared to your typical idol mascot development process. The hand puppets based on the group were already out there, and the fans were really attached to them, so instead of creating BBNEXDO from scratch, we started with the existing puppets and gave them some polish so they could function as official characters. The most important part of the whole process was not to ruin what made the puppets so endearing in the first place. Rather than go overboard with detail, we approached it more like tightening things up, and instead of absolute uniformity across the six of them, we focused on bringing out aspects of each of the BOYNEXTDOOR members’ physical appearances.

The direction we took there fed into how we built the characters’ universe. Given the meaning that’s already behind the name BOYNEXTDOOR, things like homes and doors have always worked their way into the branding naturally. For the characters, we wanted to take the idea of home one step further and turn it into a town. The BOYNEXTDOOR members are still the friendly boys who live next door, and now BBNEXDO became the tiny guards who watch over them somewhere in that town.


What sort of personal traits from the BOYNEXTDOOR members are reflected in their six characters?
Han Hyunji: As a whole, we wanted all six characters to feel unified under the BBNEXDO name, but in details like their facial features, we tried to bring out what makes each member of the group unique. For example, SUNGHO has these cat- or fox-like eyes, so we reflected that in CATBBI’s design. Since RIWOO and WOONHAK together are called the Dubuz, we wanted to make their characters look similar to each other, too, so both characters have dots for eyes, although DALRING’s feel a little darker than WOONBABY’s. JAEHYUN’s eyes practically sparkle, so we worked that into MYNGMYNG too. HAN TATPUNG was designed with TAESAN’s uniquely cool, chic vibe and details like his lower eyelashes in mind. LEEHAN’s strong facial features are reflected in 312’s eyelashes, and his curly hair became that tight fluffy tuft of hair. For WOONBABY, we stripped away as much detail as possible and tried to echo WOONHAK using just two dots and a line. A little behind-the-scenes detail: When you look at the final design, it seems really simple, but if the space between the eyes is off by even 1 mm, it doesn’t look like WOONHAK anymore, so his character actually went through the most revisions. (laughs)

The BOYNEXTDOOR members helped out with naming the BBNEXDO characters and writing their personal bios. What were they most focused on during that process?
Han Hyunji: They gave us 100% of the ideas for the whole backstory, including names and personalities. SUNGHO made CATBBI a picky gourmet eater, and he was insistent we highlight that his character specifically likes sirloin from cows from the 530th dimension. RIWOO took his own personality traits and dropped them right in for DALRING, so they don’t just look the same, they’re also both relatively quiet and similar personality-wise. We added in that DALRING loves donut-shaped shells in reference to how RIWOO likes donuts. In JAEHYUN’s case, he suggested that when MYNGMYNG goes home and puts on glasses, that usual sparkly glow in the eyes disappears. JAEHYUN’s also the leader of BOYNEXTDOOR, so his character is the leader of BBNEXDO, too. When MYNGMYNG howls, the rest of the BBNEXDO characters come right away.

TAESAN made HAN TATPUNG a cat born and raised in the jungle who’s great at parkour, and, like himself, someone really into fashion who always wears sunglasses and a scarf. And since LEEHAN has a dog named Koni, he wanted 312 to have a Maltese at all times, too, so we hid a little dog inside his character’s tuft of hair. WOONBABY who used to live in the Snowman Kingdom but became a guard after following the sound of music flowing out of BOYNEXTDOOR’s town. WOONHAK’s character looks like a snowman but doesn’t melt even in hot places, and so has hobbies that involve heat, like surfing, tanning, and zoning out as he stares at a fireplace. Not surprisingly, the character’s personality is as fiery and energetic as a flame. All of these ideas originated from ideas given to us by the group members.


The group’s first pop-up store, “BBNEXDO in Town,” was held at 29CM SEONGSU, and the second, “BBNEXDO is Coming to Town,” was at I’PARK Mall in Yongsan. What kind of fun experiences were you aiming to give ONEDOOR with the themes of those pop-ups?
Oh Seungjae: The most important thing when planning each pop-up was that its purpose and timing felt natural. For “BBNEXDO in Town,” since it was the very first time introducing the BBNEXDO characters, we put a lot of effort into fully working their universe into the space. The second pop-up, “BBNEXDO is Coming to Town,” targeted the year-end season, so we built the space around the idea of BBNEXDO taking on the role of Santa and watching over the town. We put in balloons at I’PARK Mall and spent a lot of effort taking the posters of the BBNEXDO characters sliding down a rooftop in Santa outfits and bringing that image to life, which we hoped would allow ONEDOOR to enjoy BBNEXDO outside the pop-up, day and night. We plan to continue on with the concept of them playing a guardian role in future pop-up stores as much as possible.

Han Hyunji: When a pop-up store opens, people are naturally drawn to the merchandise above all else. For the BBNEXDO pop-up, we wanted people to enjoy not only the products but the space itself like walking through one big story. Since the characters are guards first and foremost, we’re always thinking about how to interpret that differently each season.

Our top priority for “BBNEXDO in Town” focused on the fact that it was where fans would get to know the characters for the first time. On the first floor, we built the town where BOYNEXTDOOR lives so fans could experience the BBNEXDO universe, and on the second floor, we recreated the space from the teaser video so fans could walk right through it. “BBNEXDO is Coming to Town” was aligned with the holiday season and given a slightly cuter and more playful concept. The idea was that the BBNEXDO guards have a secret mission to deliver presents to the people in the town, and from there we hid little fun things all around. Our hope for both pop-ups was that ONEDOOR would feel free to just drop by, look around, and come away loving the world of BBNEXDO even more.


What’s a unique feature of BBNEXDO’s charm that you’d like everyone to know about?
Han Hyunji: All the ideas from the group members, like how when MYNGMYNG howls all the BBNEXDO characters immediately come together, or how HAN TATPUNG is a cat born and raised in the jungle, are all sprinkled into stuff that’s already out there like videos and KakaoTalk emoticons. I think ONEDOOR will have even more fun with BBNEXDO if they check out all of that together. And as a designer, the one thing I really want to be careful about is the characters feeling like they only exist to sell products. We want to avoid fans coming to see them as something you can only engage with if you spend money or something they’d feel left out about if they don’t have it, so we’re constantly thinking about ways to take BBNEXDO beyond the merch and blend in seamlessly into fans’ everyday lives—which is why, during last year’s “KNOCK ON Vol.1” tour, the BBNEXDO characters danced onstage with the group during “ABCDLOVE,” and we also put out smartphone wallpapers for each season last year. I hope that, in their day-to-day lives as they support BOYNEXTDOOR, fans will start to feel like they’ve got BBNEXDO by their side. We’re always working hard on new content to put out, so I hope people will look forward to that. (laughs)

Oh Seungjae: The most important thing for us has always been making sure BOYNEXTDOOR can be a part of the fans’ everyday lives. BBNEXDO is an extension of that, and each character is a direct reflection of one of the group members. We designed each of them not just to look like the boys but by incorporating their ideas. Because the artists were in on everything down to the tiniest details, the characters are a form of self-expression and what makes BBNEXDO special is more or less the same thing that makes BOYNEXTDOOR special. I hope BBNEXDO allows ONEDOOR to feel like BOYNEXTDOOR is with them always.

And like Hyunji said, we’re trying to make something fun and different every season. For example, we made stickers in collaboration with other illustrators, and we even did a “Tom and Jerry” collab. We’re working hard so ONEDOOR can experience the fun and joy of being with BBNEXDO in lots of different ways. I really hope they’ll keep showing BBNEXDO a lot of love. (laughs)