Seoul Design Week 2014, consisting of some of Seoul’s most celebrated design events, including the Seoul Design Festival, Design Market, and Herald Design Forum, successfully completed its five-day run on November 30.

During its run, Seoul Design Week 2014 turned many parts of downtown Seoul, including DDP (Dongdaemun Design Plaza) and COEX, into exciting festival venues. This year’s event was organized by the Seoul Design Foundation and supported by the Seoul Metropolitan Government to become the first comprehensive design festival held in Korea. Organizers combined all of the design-focused programs to be held in Seoul so far, such as the Seoul Design Festival, Herald Design Forum, and Design Market, into one great festival event, turning Seoul’s entire downtown area into a huge festival venue.

Seoul Design Week 2014 was planned to increase synergy in the design industry by combining all of the diverse design-related programs held in the citizen sector and promote the brand of Seoul as a global design city.

The event provided the citizens of Seoul with exciting opportunities to relish bountiful feasts of design through a variety of events, including seminars, exhibitions, and markets, prepared by some of the world’s most celebrated designers and successful business people.

The Seoul Design Festival, held in COEX Mall, for instance, attracted wide public attention thanks to its special exhibitions focused on future-oriented design, such as “3D printing.” A total of over 90 thousand citizens visited the venue and participated in the various festival programs held for five days, making it the most popular of all the design-related events held in Korea today. Participants were particularly enthusiastic about the opportunity offered to them to participate in a seminar that included some of the world’s most famous designers and leading figures in design entrepreneurship, such as Paul Cocksedge and Francesca Veronesi.

 
Citizens also showed great enthusiasm for the Seoul Design Spot Tour as it effectively offered open studios for the the designers, in many parts of downtown Seoul. These “design spots”, fifteen in total, provided citizens with experience-focused events on a variety of topics, including urban beekeeping and calligraphy.

As for design students, the Herald Design Forum was a dream come true as it was included the participation of some of the world’s most celebrated designers and architects, such as Remment Koolhaas, Jeff Vandeberg, Olivier Theyskens, and Chris Riggs. The Herald Design Market, opened in connection with the forum, appealed to those interested in design intended to aid in a more comfortable and practical lifestyle, with food and kitchenware promoting health and well-being. 

In his congratulatory speech for the Herald Design Forum, Mayor of Seoul Park Won-sun stressed the importance and value of design, saying: “‘Design thinking’ based on humanism, empathy, creativity and innovation can produce solutions to various problems.”

Organizers of Seoul Design Week 2014 found their event very successful in that its various design-focused events helped to create synergy through cooperation, which would have lasting influence. Experts now believe that if Seoul Design Week continues to develop at its current rapid pace it will soon grow into one of the top design festivals in East Asia and turn Seoul into one of the region’s top tourist attractions for those interested in design. 

Baek Jong-won, CEO of the Seoul Design Foundation, stressed at an interview with the media he had after the event, “Our mission is to create an environment in which we can develop synergy between all the existing events, forums, festivals and Design Spots.” He insisted, “What is more important for the creation of ‘an environment for a creative economy’ is not hardware production but how to use such hardware.” He then concluded, “We need to make DDP a means to experience, communicate and exchange what is new.”

By online news team(onlinenews@heraldcorp.com)