The Gwangju Design Biennale, Asia’s largest and oldest design biennale celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, is eyeing an expanded role as a facilitator of exchanges among Asian countries in the field of design. The monthlong festival of design, which opened Oct. 15 in the southern city of Gwangju, presents 12 exhibitions -- all based on local and global networks of designers. Held at the ...

Herald Design Forum, Design Korea, Seoul Design Week to invite new, established designers to share value

Arik Levy, a world-renowned industrial designer, said Korea’s design sector should keep working toward narrowing the communication and cultural gap between people. Arik Levy In an interview with The Korea Herald, Levy said that this would take some time to develop using art and technology. But given Korea’s rapid progress in the field of design arts and technology, he said the country would be ...

Shigeru Ban is no ordinary architect. Unlike conventional architects of this era, Ban does not only use iron or steel as the primary materials to structure houses, museums, community centers or churches. Shigeru Ban He uses paper tubes, cardboard, beer crates, containers and other inexpensive recycled materials to “design and rebuild” places and buildings devastated by natural disasters or con...

Tommy Li, a branding designer known for his audacious visual designs and black humor, is one of Asia’s few designers with a global presence spanning across Hong Kong, China, Macau, Japan and Italy. The Hong Kong-based designer currently heads the Tommy Li Design Workshop, which was selected among the 10 best branding companies in China by Chinabico.com in 2010. He has received over 580 local an...

Global brand designer Bob van der Lee said South Korea’s public and private sectors have made tremendous progress in design over the years, but not yet in branding. Bob van der Lee (Total Identity) Korean companies are still focusing too much on branding their products around their features and qualities in an effort to boost sales, but not on developing stories behind those products, he said i...

In this digital world, information is becoming increasingly easier to access. But not for all. Such accessibility still falls far short for people with disabilities. Young entrepreneur Kim Ju-yoon has turned to the issue of discrimination in information accessibility and decided to tackle it with the power of technology and design. His belief in the fair distribution of digital benefits led him ...

This is the fifth in a series of articles introducing key features at the upcoming Herald Design Forum 2015 to be held in Seoul on Nov. 10. -Ed. Design today seems to be the horse that is pulling the cart. No industry can survive without it anymore. From leaning on design as a strategic marketing tool to subtly expressing a company’s signature values, industrial design has been constantly evo...

Design is about more than aesthetics. Its role has expanded to diverse areas of life, helping people live efficiently, safely and comfortably. It has brought innovations in all aspects of life, from consumption of products, living environment and use of technology to how we work in organizations. “Design impacts everything around us. Design means adding creativity into every aspect of our lives...

This is the fourth in a series of articles introducing key features at the upcoming Herald Design Forum 2015 to be held in Seoul on Nov. 10. ― Ed. Forget about the magic of unwrapping a bar of chocolate Charlie Bucket oh-so-dearly held in his hands in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” It is time to push the “print” button of the “Magic Candy Factory,” and voila! Gummies will start dropping ou...

Marti Guixe (copyright knolke/Imagekontainer) For Marti Guixe, a world-renowned designer, food is an object that has to be carefully designed and contextualized to enhance its usability and consumption for the mass. In an interview with The Korea Herald, Guixe, who has been designing food since the 1990s, said food design is beyond art that has to converge different fields of knowledge and stud...

This is the third in a series of articles introducing key features at the upcoming Herald Design Forum 2015 to be held in Seoul on Nov. 10. --Ed. Food has certainly been an important part of Korean culture and lifestyle. Try any number of channels on the television these days, and you will find food at any time of the day. Celebrities take mouthfuls of gourmet meals while chefs whip up dish a...

Seoul Fashion Week for spring-summer 2016 was held from Oct.16-21 at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul. (Yonhap) Seoul Fashion Week is arguably the biggest and single most important event in Korean fashion. Held twice a year since 1997 -- once in spring and again in autumn -- it is an occasion for the country’s most visible designers to present their collections, offering style previews for the s...

As Seoul has a reputation for trendy men whose devotion to fashion and skin care tops in the world, menswear collections by Seoul-based designers are some of the must-see shows at the ongoing Seoul Fashion Week. Beyond Closet (left), Helch es Helch (SFW) Here are the highlights of menswear shows from Friday to Sunday. Munsoo Kwon One of the hottest emerging menswear designers in the Korean f...

This is the second in a series of articles introducing key features at the upcoming Herald Design Forum 2015 to be held in Seoul on Nov. 10. - Ed. A film festival’s star-studded red carpet is brought to your home in a 360-degree panoramic view. Virtual reality and hologram technology provides an alternative to live concerts, enabling fans to digitally interact with their stars -- dead or alive. ...