A former candidate for SM Entertainment’s visual planning team has gone viral online after claiming that ideas from her rejected proposal were later reflected in aespa’s LEMONADE album images.
The individual shared screenshots of her original proposal on an online community, explaining that she had passed MS’s document screening stage before eventually being rejected during the interview process. According to her, the proposal was presented before Aespa published it MY WORLD album.
However, after recently seeing the conceptual images of aespa LEMONADEshe said she was shocked by what he described striking similarities between his work and the final album design.
The applicant specifically pointed out several visual elements that she believed overlapped with her proposal, including the use of shadows to create object-based effects, the general direction of lighting for the photoshoot, and the retouching style used in the images.
She also pointed out that a black-and-white conceptual image included in her proposal in which only the subject’s eyes were illuminated was not sourced online, but personally edited by her to demonstrate the intended mood and visual identity.
The former candidate expressed frustration with the situation, saying that if the company had found the proposal challenging enough to refer, it might have at least considered hiring her.
She revealed that after spending nearly two years trying to break into the entertainment industry, including unsuccessful applications to both SM Entertainment and The Black Label, she finally gave up, ran into financial difficulties, and moved back to her hometown.
The post quickly spread across Korean online communities, where many netizens sympathized with the applicant’s frustration.
Some commentators stated that it was common for ideas presented during recruitment processes or public competitions to later appear in marketing campaigns. Others argued that the similarities were significant enough to raise doubts, especially regarding the continuity between the shadow effects and the glowing eye concept.
Several users also praised the candidate’s creativity, suggesting that the proposal itself demonstrated that she had strong visual planning skills suited to the entertainment industry.
At the same time, some netizens questioned whether the similarities were enough to constitute actual plagiarism, pointing out that some visual techniques are commonly used in modern K-pop concept design.
Neither SM Entertainment nor the aespa team have publicly responded to the claims as of this writing.
Sources: Pannchoa
