Seoul City Develops First 'Illustration Guideline' for Easy Application in 97 Types of Public Design Sites

Visualizing complex content with a single illustration... Utilized throughout the entire project process
Includes a checklist to verify essential items by category such as design direction, terrain, layout, and form

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] On the 8th, Seoul City announced that it has developed the "Public Design Illustration Guidelines," which explain installation guidelines for 97 types of public designs such as roads, parks, bus stops, and facility information signs in the form of illustrations.

The public designs presented by Seoul City through the illustration guidelines cover 97 items in 4 categories. The four categories are public spaces, public facilities, public visual media, and public design projects. When installing public designs, anyone will be able to intuitively recognize and easily apply the directions and contents that must be applied to each public design, such as terrain, layout, form, materials, and colors. Seoul City is the first to create guidelines for public design in the form of illustrations and also developed a checklist to verify whether the guidelines have been properly applied for each item.

For example, dedicated bicycle lanes have extensive detailed guidelines to consider during design and production, such as layout with pedestrian-only roads and vehicle lanes, road width, crosswalk markings, road pavement, and street tree planting. Facility information signs, which are frequently seen on the streets, also have many design manuals to follow, including sign and font size, notation methods such as characters and arrows, and colors.

The illustration guidelines can be easily utilized by administrative agencies and public design project operators throughout the entire process of public design projects, from planning and design to on-site application and implementation.

The city expects that the guidelines will contribute to enhancing the quality of public design by improving the efficiency and consistency of public design utilization. Administrative agencies such as Seoul City and autonomous districts can increase consistency in applying public design and reduce regional disparities. It can also reduce confusion in interpretation during review and consultation. Project operators performing public design installations can improve their understanding of public design and reduce trial and error during project planning.

By visualizing the design direction, content, and quantitative figures of individual facilities, the guidelines allow immediate visual confirmation, and by also illustrating the urban structure where the facilities are located, they enable a comprehensive understanding of the location, purpose, and function of public facilities within the urban context. The checklist includes essential items for supervision and review, such as basic design directions, terrain, layout (installation), form, materials, colors, and graphic elements for each item. When more detailed information is needed for each item, a list of reference materials is provided to guide users to relevant laws, regulations, and manuals.

Seoul City plans to further develop educational materials and programs to ensure that the illustration guidelines, which embody Seoul’s public design policy direction, are widely disseminated, applied, and effectively utilized. These will be offered free of charge through professional educational institutions and the Seoul Public Design website. Additionally, an English translation will be published and distributed to promote Seoul’s advanced public design cases overseas and to further elevate the international status of Seoul’s public design.

Joo Yong-tae, Head of the Seoul City Culture Headquarters, said, “As the importance of public design in the urban environment is increasingly emphasized, we will strive to ensure that projects proceed consistently and swiftly through the Public Design Illustration Guidelines.” He added, “Through this, we expect citizens to enjoy a safer and more convenient life and, furthermore, for the quality of the city to improve.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.