Herald Design Forum 2018 kicks off at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul on Friday for a two-day run under the theme “Designing Future.”

The eighth edition of Asia’s leading design forum, organized by Herald Corp., features 15 internationally renowned speakers sharing their unique perspectives and inspirations.

The annual design festival begins with an opening address by Herald Corp. Chairman Jungwook Hong.

Following the chairman’s opening address is a keynote speech by Princess Dana Firas of Jordan, chair of the National Petra Trust and a UNESCO Goodwill ambassador.

In a separate session that follows, Princess Dana will highlight the importance of preserving cultural legacies of the past and how preservation of the past can contribute to the present and future in a lecture titled, “Designing Future, Inspiring Past.”

Peter Zec, Red Dot founder and CEO, will speak next about quality design centering on simplicity, the notion that has long-played a decisive role in the history of design.

Also speaking Friday are Italian furniture designer Martino Gamper, British designer Thomas Heatherwick, Japanese designer Junji Tanigawa, Hyundai Motor’s Artlab director Lee Dae-hyung and Shin Myong-sup and Byun Sa-bum from Plus X.

In the evening, Princess Dana and the Plus X Creative Partner co-CEOs will participate in a conference dinner and “Premium Talk” sessions at JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square Seoul.

The second day of the design festival will be a special treat for those who are interested not just in design, but also fine arts and architecture.

Bartomeu Mari, director of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art here and Deyan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum in London, will talk about how design is expanding its boundaries as well as the future landscape design will shape.


Martha Thorne, executive director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, and Park Jin-hee, Korean architect and CEO of architecture firm SsD, will together talk about designing quality architecture, building works that offer comfort and functionality to the users and sustainability to the urban landscape.

Korean installation artist Choi Jeong-hwa, whose solo exhibition is currently running at the MMCA Seoul branch, is also joining the second day of the forum.

Rising Japanese architect Junya Ishigami, who won the Golden Lion for best project at the 12th Venice Architecture Biennale, will close the annual design forum with a presentation of his projects.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)