All About Design

Seoul Design Fair 2010 to show what design is all about through exhibitions and seminars

The Seoul Design Olympiad of 2008 and 2009 were reborn as the Seoul Design Fair 2010, which is the world’s most comprehensive design festival organized by Seoul to celebrate its designation as the World Design Capital and to develop it as a world design culture hub.
The event kicked off place from Sept. 17 to Oct. 7 at Jamsil Sports Complex and four main design clusters including Mapo-Hongdae District, DDP District, Guro Digital Complex and the Gangnam-Shinsa-dong District organized by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and sponsored by the Seoul Design Foundation.
The mega event with the theme of “design for all,” is an international collection of designs provided by designers from over 100 countries including well-known international designers and those from famous universities with design departments and scholars of design. The event is for anyone who feels the value of design in their daily lives and shares the benefit, Seoul City officials said.
Over 1,500 people are expected to attend the international event including dignitaries from both at home and abroad, from the business community, political circles, the design community, students, civil organizations and others. The event will be kicked off with a “green performance” in tune with the major theme of the event.
The green performance will be kicked off with a performance of the Pin-Pang-Pong gala show, the Noridan of the Eco-Orchestra, followed by a chorus of children singing the song entitled “The Beautiful World” mixed with the sounds of flowing water, chirping birds and other natural sounds. Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon will conclude the opening show with his speech preceded by a children’s performance on the stage with flowerpots of a green garden panorama entering the stage from both sides and a show of films on design. Some 1,000 viewers are expected to watch the opening using smart phones to send their messages to a large screen at the scene unfolding on the stage for the first time.
No back wall will be built at the stage, as the Seoul Design Hall designed by Alexandro and Francesco Mendini will be the background so that the viewers will have a clear look at the newly-built design hall, which helped to reduce the expenses for the opening show.
As the spectators enter the Jamsil Sports Complex in Seoul, they will confront the pavilion of the Seoul design event designed jointly by three of the most well-known designers in the world: the Mendinis, Korean designer Kim Seok-chol and U.S. designer Daniel Lee Beskins.
The pavilion is made up of three separate halls, the Seoul Design Hall designed with the theme of “La Punta,” the culture Design Hall with the theme of cohesion and harmony and the City Design Hall with the theme of heaven, earth and human, which all represent Seoul as the World Design City.
Various designs with bicycles as the subject will be on exhibition, as the machine has been a popular environmentally friendly transportation vehicle around the world. The designs will include fashion, accessories and brand-name bicycles under the title of Seoul International Bicycle Design Festival, which will also include a bicycle performance event and a show of movies to display the importance of green design.
Also attracting the attention of the spectators would include “The Display of Korea, Japan and China Lifestyles” where one can compare the lifestyles of the three neighboring countries at a glance; the Seoul Design Asset Exhibition, to show Seoul’s 600 years of history as the capital of Korea; and the Seoul Brand Show to show the value of Oriental design, which has been drawing world attention as a new design model for the world. For the Seoul Industrial Design Exhibition, some 200 brands from over 20 countries will be on display to show the progress of the world design industry, as the theme of the event is “designomic, Seoul,” and the design brands will include various designs made by famous world designers and designs on the daily necessities around the world.
The Seoul International Design Collection Exhibition attracted 5,175 designers from 105 countries around the world, showing that the event will be truly an international one on a high-level, attracting more designers than the Maceff Design Collection Exhibition in Italy and the Nissan Design Collection Exhibition in Japan, the two world-renowned design exhibitions.
Judges of the exhibitions said the event will show diversified designs reflecting different lifestyles of the participating countries, nothing short of world-renowned exhibitions as it will show excellent designs, which made for hard work for organizers to select the designs to be shown at the event.
On the sidelines of the event, the Design Seoul International Conference with some of the world-renowned scholars of design, such as John Wood and Stephano Giovannoni, was held Sept. 17-18 along with a number of designers representing Korea, Japan and China to discuss world design trends. Seoul City intends to take advantage of the design fair in boosting its abundant design cultural inheritance and potential of its citizens on design, which helped it to win the title of “UNESCO Design Creative City” in July, following its being named as the World Design Capital from the LCSID for 2010, which is given to cities that want to develop through design.
Professor Choi Kyung-ran of Kookmin University, in charge of directing the design fair, said she hoped the global event will help Seoul secure its future growth driver, while boosting the city’s design competitiveness through meetings of global designers, new designers, producers of goods, consumers and businesses at the event.
The Mapo-Hongik University area will hold events for those seeking jobs as designers and those who want to start design businesses. Various information on jobs related to design will be offered with chances for design firms and job applicants to meet. At East Gate DDP, advice will be offered on repairing old furniture like new to physically experience the reform design. At the Gangnam-Shinsa-dong District, designers will conduct a seminar on current design trends and the sale of design products. At the Guro Digital Complex, a seminar on technical design will be held. nw

Mayor Oh Se-hoon of Seoul gives an opening speech for the Seoul Design Fair Sept. 17-Oct.7 Jamsil Sports Complex in Seoul.

Mayor Oh Se-hoon of Seoul, 4th R, looks around the venue for the Seoul Design Fair kicked off from Sept.17-Oct. 7 at Jamsil Sports Complex in Seoul.

Mayor Oh Se-hoon of Seoul

1st R, is on tour of a garden specifically designed for the Seoul Design Olympiad.

An exhibition hall design for electronic products.