2008 Industrial Design Trend - Seoul (South Korea): an impression
Posted by Marco van Hout on July 6th, 2007
This week I returned from an interesting trip to Seoul, Korea, where I had been invited to give a lecture at the 2008 Industrial Design Trend Seminar, organized by SSCP (a large color coating and materials specialized company). The event was a great success and the audience consisted of over 550 design enthusiasts.
Below a short visual impression:
1. Ancient wall to protect old Seoul
2. 50% of Korean cars on the road is a Hyundai. Together with KIA an astonishing 75%!
3. Korean streets often don’t have an official name. ‘Official’ nicknames are used to refer to and navigate through streets
4. Starbucks? No, it’s Tom ‘n Toms 
5. The only Starbucks written in another language because of neighborhood regulations for signs
6. For the audibly impaired and deaf, in Korea they use all measures to help you watch a movie: subtitles and an annoying person in the middle of your screen… enjoy!
7. Mr. Young-Il Kim, Vice President of Hyundai/ KIA worldwide and CEO of Innocean, and myself
8. Room of Seminar (later on, it was packed)
9. Me presenting, with on the far right ms Cindy Kang who did a great job interpreting the presentation in Korean
10. In the middle: Founder and Chairman of SSCP, mr. Joo Eon Oh
12. SSCP handed out a beautifully designed book about 2008 Industrial Design Trend. I also wrote a design message in it.
In the book in image 12, SSCP presents the latest trends and trend investigations that were done by their large design research team. Specializing in color, the SSCP book shows a lot of results from extensive surveys on what people find appealing. For 2007, for example, SSCP sees the trend in color as follows: “Red and yellow were decreased and orange is distinguished. Also, increase of blue is apparent as purple blue is decreased. Grayish tones are important in overall hues. Pure black is decreased but dark colors close to black are increased. In contrast to decreased black, white is increased.”
I would like to thank SSCP for their kind invitation and I look forward to a next collaboration.
Hi Marco,
Interesting design perspective from Korea - thanks! I teach design in Sydney, Australia and we often have some Korean students. I am looking for some design books for my senior students written in their native tongue. The content of the books may range from industrial design to graphics.
I can imagine processing from English all the time is no fun so I’m looking to engage these students as well as open up opportunities to learn from them.
Perhaps you could recommend some Korean books to purchase written 100% in Korean?
Many Thanks,
Adrian
As a korea,It was an interesting impression. And no.5 photo was so funny.you’ve already got korea!^^