Design gurus from Spain, Italy and Japan sat down to discuss ways to harmonize fine art and industrial design, as well as how design should navigate in the face of technological development, at the seventh annual Herald Design Forum in Seoul on Tuesday.
“Fine art and design for industrial production differ from each other in that the former allows more freedom to designers. As for designing for production, we work within boundaries as we have to consider both the users and companies,” said Jaime Hayon, a Spanish industrial designer and head of Hayon Studio, at a Design Talk session hosted by Kim Daniel, head of Daylight Design.
“So I think the way to harmonize those two is to integrate what we learn from fine art to industrial design.”
From left: Kim Daniel, head of Daylight, hosts a Design Talk session with Claudio Francesco Bellini, Jaime Hayon and Naoto Fukasawa, held as part of the Herald Design Forum 2017 at The Shilla Seoul on Tuesday. (Park Hae-mook/The Korea Herald)
Claudio Francesco Bellini, CEO and founder of Claudio Bellini Design+Design from Italy, agreed that designers now have to value not only “styling,” but also practicality and communication with clients. Despite such complications, Naoto Fukasawa, a Japanese product designer and head of Naoto Fukasawa Design, emphasized that fine art and design are similar in that they enlighten people and allow them to realize commonalities shared among humans.
In terms of the permeation of technologies such as 3-D printing into design, Hayon emphasized the importance of not losing humanity. “To me, design process is more like a humane side. Computers may excel in calculating proportions, but they can’t surpass what humans’ hands are capable of.”
“About 40 years ago, designs for automobiles were different, as they were all handmade. But now with computers, they all look the same. We should be wary of utilizing technologies to protect uniqueness in design.”
By Hong Dam-young (
lotus@heraldcorp.com)
