[Herald Design Forum] Build it better: Experts present innovations in AI, CGI, architecture

The Herald Design Forum 2024 took place Tuesday at Sebitseom in southern Seoul, in the floating cultural complex in Han river with the theme of “Inspiration, Limitless?” inviting architects, designers, visual content creators and top experts in cutting-edge technology who push their boundary in the fields.

“For the past 13 years, the Herald Design Forum has brought together more than 100 design experts to discuss how design has evolved and changed our society, joined by more than a million audiences so far,” said Choi Jin-young, the CEO and publisher of Herald Corp. at the forum.

“This year’s forum ‘Inspiration, Limitless?’ casts a question about how far we can push forward our inspiration and curiosity in terms of design. I am very looking forward to hearing the insights from the experts today,” he added.

The 14th edition of the forum brought together 13 speakers for three sessions – architecture, extended reality (XR), artificial intelligence (AI), visual effects (VFX) and Creators.

The forum began with congratulatory remarks from Yu In-chon, minister of culture, sports and tourism and Seoul's Vice Mayor on Political Affairs Kim Byung-min.

“I would like to express my sincere congratulations to opening the Asia’s largest design forum. I hope the forum provides an opportunity to audiences to learn the value of design through the world’s renowned designers. The government will put full efforts to support the fields of design and visual content,” said Yu on video remarks.

As the first speakers, Pritzker-winning architect duo Anne Lacaton and Jean Philippe Vassal delivered a lecture titled “Optimism” and shared their thoughts on architecture design, expressing a respect to the existing and how they have avoided the approach to demolishing buildings or nature to build a new one.

French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte mentioned the Centre Pompidou project which is ongoing in Seoul at the 63 building in Yeouido. The Centre Pompidou branch in Seoul is set to open next year.

The three architects had a talk at a roundtable session for Q&A session where they shared their own philosophy in architecture. “(My architectural) philosophy is wanting to do something for others, not for myself. I think this is really important,” said Wilmotte.

The XR session followed after lunch break, opening with a lecture by Johnny Lee, founder of iStaging, a Taipei-based tech firm specializing in virtual reality solutions, with the theme of “Design a journey to see imagination through XR.”

Ahn Chang-wook, a professor at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology and the creator of South Korea’s first AI composer, spoke for the AI session, introducing Korea's first AI composer EvoM.

The VFX session was led by award-winning motion graphic designer Kim Gryun and two experts from Weta FX, one of the world's leading visual effects companies. Weta CG supervisor Choi Jong-jin who dedicated to crafting the realistic and stunning water scenes in the 2022 blockbuster "Avatar 2: The Way of Water” and Hwang Jung-rock, a senior facial modeler at Weta FX, emphasized the importance of artists' creativity in facial modeling, by sharing his work on "Avatar 2: The Way of Water.

A special talk was held as the last session with visual content creators -- visual artists Kim Ha-na, Koo Ji-min and Hong In-hye – sharing their experiences as a webtoon creator, emoji designer or cartoonist. They discussed the significance of popular arts forms and delved into where they draw inspiration.

The Herald Design Forum 2024 held the inaugural design contest, titled “Herald Eco Emoticon Contest” to award designers for the best emoticon, or emotion icon, that raises an awareness about the climate crisis.

The grand prize went to Kim Jae-hyo for the character “Jikigom” winning 5 million won ($3,724) prize money while Jo Eun-yee, Yang Eun-seo, Jang Yun-jeong and Kim Joo-hui won the excellence award, given a million won prize money for each winner.