Symbol Mark for Seoul
Design Olympiad 2008

Seoul City unveils the symbol for the global event to boost its worldwide image

     
The Seoul Metropolitan Government has named its global design event the Seoul Design Olympiad 2008 to be held at Chamsil Olympic Stadium from Oct.l0-30.
Seoul City has been calling the event as just the world design Olympic since January when it decided to hold the design event as an overall festivity to attract world attention to Seoul.
The city said the official name for the event includes Seoul because of the need to publicize the brand of Seoul as a global metropolis. The city also announced the event identity mark to express the theme of the event, 'Design is AIR.'Event identity signifies sameness, continuity and event concept imaging. It will be a symbol for the global design event so that it may be used in all the publicity material and events held by the city as it includes all the intentions and significance like a logo both in English and Korean, signature, emblems and color system.
The symbol mark, the most important part of the event identity displays the practicality of the Korean people, and their senses for aesthetic beauty, as a sculptural motive with many faces, looking like a ball wrapped with many pieces of clothes.
"Wrapped,"and "Unfurling"that are displayed in the sculptural ball are in accord with the purpose of the global design festivity, the city said.
The symbol mark's overall form is made of pieces of sculptural forms o show unity and harmony and the creation of newness with its form of a three-dimensional ball signifying a festivity that all the people in the world participate. The symbol mark has five colors with four of them coming from the Yang side and one from the Ying side from the Yang-Ying Chinese philosophy and is expected to have diversified designs when its application system is prepared.
The five colors represent the following five themes: Black signifies the Seoul Design Conference and the wisdom of humans; Blue represents the Seoul design public exhibition and creativity and life; Green Seoul design exhibition and the color of the East, hope; Yellow, Seoul design festival and the high value of the universe; Red, Seoul light festival and the passion of the sun.
The design Olympics'major theme, "Design is AIR"basically means designing together like air. Lee Kyung-dong, head of the planning team for Design Seoul, explained to the press that Seoul is breathing like any other cities in the world and has been developing its culture, life patterns, and creative city through designing and residents of Seoul and other cities will feel the strong energy and fresh and strong power from the Seoul event. nw

The symbol mark for World Design Capital Seoul 2010.

The planned Dongdaemun Design & Park will be built on the former Dongdaemun Stadium.

(top photo)Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon speaks at an agreement signing ceremony for the World Design Capital Seoul 2010 on March 17. Seoul Mayor Oh and Carlos Hinrichsen, chairman of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, hold up a certificate on a deal on business collaboration in design.