Korea’s top design forum opens

Herald Design Forum starts at COEX for two-day run


The second annual Herald Design Forum opened its doors to the public on Thursday, focusing on design that affects all areas of our everyday lives.

Shedding light on a wide array of fields ― such as traditional and contemporary arts, industrial and construction design as well as design of movie concepts ― the event is expected to have those with creative mindsets flocking to Seoul.

It will also touch on the topics of digital art and advertisement, which have strong ties with design, and have top designers and artists take the stage to share their inspiration throughout the forum period until Friday.

World-class car designers Chris Bangle and Peter Schreyer, architect Tadao Ando, top retail and industrial designers Kenya Hara and Joon Oh, as well as artists Zhang Xiaogang and Steve Jung will gather at the COEX Auditorium for the country’s biggest design convention.

Under the theme “Design Changes the World,” the first of the three sessions, “A Master’s Imagination Becomes Reality,” will be presented by renowned architect Ando.

Ando, a self-taught architect who is currently a professor of architecture at Tokyo University, will center his speech on how design contains nature.

He is widely known for his “Row House, Sumiyoshi” project that remodeled traditional wooden Japanese housing with exposed concrete.

The second session is set to be presented by Hara, who took over as art director of Japanese retailer MUJI in 2002.

Also a prominent graphics designer and professor at Musashino Art University, Hara has taken the lead in the international retail industry with his simple and practical designs for the company.

His lecture, entitled “Designs for Sale,” will touch upon the advertisements that have been carried out by the retailer.

The third session is to be led by Hyundai Card’s design department director Joon Oh.

In his talk entitled “Design Management, Design Competitiveness,” Oh will discuss design that sells, design that creates its own value and manages the brand, and design that maintains the company’s esteem.

Oh’s recent work includes Hyundai Card’s innovative M-card series that he created after joining the firm in 2009.

The final two sessions will take place on Friday, and concept artist Steve Jung, who has won fandom in Hollywood, plans to share his experience and what it takes to be a concept designer.

Jung participated in blockbuster movies such as “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Transformers 2,” “Wolverine 2” and “Superman: Man of Steel.”

The final lecture titled “A New Paradigm of Creativeness” will be delivered by Bruce Duckworth, who is a judge at Cannes International Advertising Festival 2012 and who heads a brand design agency called Turner Duckworth.

Special sessions will also take place throughout the two-day session, with auto designers Bangle ― who is now the managing director of Chris Bangle Associates ― and Schreyer, chief design officer at Kia Motors, holding a design-storming session on Thursday with a private group.

Jungwook Hong, chairman of Herald Corp., will also hold a special session entitled “Classic, an Everlasting Source of Creativity” with Bangle and Park Seo-won, chief executive of Big Ant International, on Friday.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)