Describe your style in three words.
Simple, Fun and Serious, Conceptual.
What is your favorite tool or piece of equipment?
I use various tools. Carbon paper, black ballpoint pens, a few types of black ink, brushes, silkscreen, linotype-press. These tools enable me to experiment with textures and colors which printers cannot represent.
Describe your workspace to us.
My workspace is a cosy studio in NYC. I have a mac laptop, a 20-inch monitor, a wide table for hand-crafting, a comfortable chair, design books and magazines, a cigarette on the table and two black cats who cross my path all day long.
Who are your heroes?
The word 'heroes' seems a bit gigantic. The mentors around me are my heroes. Work and texts by designers, artists, musicians and writers. People close to me, my family, teachers, friends.
Where do you find inspiration?
I find it at regular places which I visit often and by just walking around. I am interested in looking at things that have already been designed. Signboards on the street, graphics on disposable paper cups, packages of products, and advertising in magazines or newspapers for instance. The internet is also a powerful resource for ideas.
What's been the best and the worst reaction to your work?
My work is simple and doesn't contain much color. People like the simplicity and minimalism, but can also find it dull.
What is the best advice you've ever been given?
"Propose honesty as a solution" by Daniel Eatock. (Mini Manifesto). I once read a bunch of manifestos collected on someone's blog. Out of all of them, this is only one that I still remember. I hadn't thought about the relationship between design and honesty before.
What has been the career defining moment for you so far?
Much of my work has been inspired by personal experience and interest. When I first came to the U.S. I was thirty-one years old. While I was getting used to the new environment, language, and culture, I experienced numerous forms of 'difference'. Exploring these phenomena ended up being the motivation for my work. The other thing defining moment for me is 'slowness'. I prefer using analog tools to relying on a computer program, as a form of rebellion against the fast pace of the digital age.
What would be your fantasy commission?
It would be to work on art-related jobs with artists and curators of galleries, museum and non-profit organizations that need an experimental and unique graphic design. 
What's the best creative/art space near to where you live?
New York is a huge creative cultural space which has numerous galleries, museums, art book stores, and beautiful parks. What is the most interesting for me is the dense but well-systemized city, like a spider map in which multiple cultures, nationalities and races are blended together. This ordinary and awkward city is very inspiring for me.
What are you going to do next?
I have a lot of rough ideas which are not realized yet but which I would like to make concrete. One of these is exhibitions, publishing and workshops with other designers and artists. Working in NYC is so exciting in that the city is a creative space, and it's market is quite huge, but later on I might move to another city to work in a totally new environment and culture.
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Hyoun You Lee 졸지에 '이현유'씨가 되었네.
그냥 읽으면 '현여리'로 읽힐수도..
영문 필명을 써야 하나. 제임스 조, 로버트 조, 마이클 조, 윌리엄 조, 데이빗 조, 리차드 조, 촬스 조, 토마스 조. (미국의 가장 흔한 이름 베스트, 1990 조사)