South Korea's Largest Design Festival 'Design Korea'... Integrating AI and Focusing on the Environment

21st Anniversary This Year... Held for Five Days from the 1st
Investment and Employment Support, Latest Design Trend Lectures

The country's largest design exhibition, 'Design Korea 2023,' is being held at COEX in Samseong-dong, Seoul. [Provided by Korea Institute of Design Promotion]

Can design solve social problems and create a better world? Let's find the answer at "Design Korea 2023," Asia's largest comprehensive design expo representing Korea. Launched in 2003 and now celebrating its 21st anniversary, Design Korea annually showcases the latest design products from over 1,000 companies and serves as a meeting place for domestic and international buyers and businesses. This year, the event runs for five days from the 1st to the 5th at COEX in Samseong-dong, Seoul. It not only introduces Korea's outstanding design companies but also offers one-on-one matching support between companies and buyers, domestic and international employment mentoring, and conferences featuring world-renowned designers.

The theme exhibition hall of this year's Design Korea is structured to showcase ▲ digital design enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI) and big data technologies ▲ design efforts aimed at solving social issues ▲ and designers' endeavors for a better world. Among the participating companies, the venture company "Graphin Square" presents a new concept heating appliance utilizing the heat-generating properties of graphene, the thinnest and strongest material in the world. Through holographic displays, visitors can enjoy various videos and information vividly, and the device can be easily folded for portability. The digital healthcare company "Beacon" offers customized solutions through an Internet of Things (IoT)-based scalp scanner.

Radiator of Graphene Square (above) and Beacon's scalp and hair loss scanner (below) [Provided by Korea Institute of Design Promotion]

LG Electronics' "Universal Up Kit," which attaches to home appliances to improve user convenience regardless of gender, age, or disability, is also on display. "No Brainer," which produces eco-friendly tissue paper using bamboo, and "Lowreet Collective," which created Cheonggyecheon benches inspired by Korean traditional ink wash paintings using recycled plastic as the main material, also stand out.

On the first day of the event, the "Korea Design Awards" ceremony was held to honor individuals who have contributed to the development of Korea's design industry and companies and organizations that have strengthened national competitiveness through design management. At the ceremony, the Silver Tower Industrial Medal was awarded to Kim Hyun, advisor at D.Park Branding. Kim is a leading Korean graphic designer who designed Seoul Olympic mascot "Hodori" and Daejeon Expo mascot "Kkumdori." The Industrial Medal was awarded to Kim Jin-soo, deputy head of Samsung Electronics Design Center, and Jung Byung-kyu, CEO of Jung Byung-kyu Design. Deputy Head Kim participated in various mobile device design projects, including the Galaxy i7500, the first to attempt Google OS installation, and the Gear S smartwatch. CEO Jung introduced the concept of book design to the domestic publishing industry and designed over 3,000 books. Additionally, the Excellent Design (GD) award ceremony will be held on the 3rd, where 80 outstanding GD works and 80 works by emerging designers will be awarded and exhibited.

On the 2nd, a special event titled "Safety Service Design Project Performance Sharing Meeting" will take place. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Korea Institute of Design Promotion, and Korea Industrial Complex Corporation have contributed to preventing major accidents and ensuring worker safety by establishing safety design infrastructure within national industrial complexes. Design solutions have enabled marking forklift operation zones with eye-catching colors and separating spaces to prevent collisions between vehicles and pedestrians.

At the Job Fair Hall, over two days starting from the 3rd, design majors will receive mentoring from seniors and gain employment know-how to help them secure jobs at excellent domestic and international companies.

Yoon Sang-heum, president of the Korea Institute of Design Promotion, emphasized, "Design is an innovative tool that pioneers Korea's future and creates new value in a rapidly changing environment to build a better world." He added, "We will strive to communicate so that companies can fully demonstrate their innovation capabilities and contribute to the development of industry, economy, and national competitiveness."

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