ddp design fair

Global buyers, including those from Korea, showed their special 'touch' bigger and wider at the DDP Design Launching Fair. With sharp eyes and amplified interest in pre-empting products that increase the value of their products as you want to have them for a long time, the conference center was filled with silent enthusiasm during the three days of the buyer’s day.   The DDP Design Launching Fair, Asia's leading design launching fair, was held for three days from October 24th to 26th, 2023 at DDP Art Hall Conference Center, a venue for buyers and design companies who have been waiting for one-of-a-kind products for a year. On the 24th and 25th, the first and day of the Buyer's Day, which consisted of pre-matching and on-site 1:1 meetings with the teams they wanted to meet through pre-portfolios, Lotte Home Shopping, GS Retail, Post Office Shopping, Walmart, Timon, 11th Avenue, Today's House, KakaoTalk Gift, Cashwork, Eland Retail, Wadiz, and others participated in the event. On the 25th and 26th, famous international online and offline buyers such as SSENSE from the United States and MERCI and GALERIES LAFAYETTE from France attended the event, and the three-day buyer's day ended with the same enthusiasm.    We look forward to the solidified vision of Korean designers and makers, as buyers consistently praised the designs that resonated with their different senses and emotions, and the practical products that encompassed their daily lives. 

The art hall where the DDP Design Launching Fair was held, was filled with a lively and colorful atmosphere. This is because a live commerce studio had been set up where you could purchase the launching products presented at the DDP Design Launching Fair in real-time. The live commerce, which was broadcast by NAVER Shopping Live on On Air, was held four times for three days on October 25, 27, and 28, for 90 minutes each. The live commerce was filled with anticipation even before it started, as the show hosts wittily explained how the products were made and what they could be used for.   On the first day of the event, Eternal Pencils by one+design, a natural companion for the earth, environment, and people, LOWLIT COLLECTIVE's Tikke Pickers, and UnrollSurface's Bio Reet Cup tumblers featured in the event, which drew up to 220,000 live views. Afterward, we were inundated with questions about one+design's long-lasting Zai Carbon Pencil with a silver point that doesn’t need sharpening.   On October 27, excitement about the products was even higher with 220,000 viewers tuning in to see Anylock's Milda push-pull door knob for a clean and hygienic way to open and close doors, Chigong's eco-friendly oral hygiene gift set, and mo-on's Obicuum Air Home Detailing cordless vacuum cleaner, which won the Best Launch award, received tons of likes and hearts.     On Saturday, the 28th, the last day of the live commerce, the studio booths were moved into the exhibition hall to tell the stories of the products more vividly right in front of them. Unique chairs from k.j design and Seungtae Jang were offered at special discounted prices during the fair, while recycled marble tables, benches, and lamps from SITELESS GROUP and Viacollective were applauded for their offer of free shipping. The coffee table and stool by outro and Viacollective, whose color can be customized according to the mood of the day, received a lot of questions.    The next hosts then introduced products such as Company J (ZOO Keeper Design) and DesignMob's illustration wrap, Remake_Lab and Chilhan79’s recycled fabric, Hana Do Bag with design motifs from masks, and Ago Studio and Beenzeenee's Shang Shang Mirror, which was viewed by about 450,000 people and proved popular with live comments. 

October 24 marked the start of Seoul Design 2023 and a huge number of visitors were brought to DDP. As a design festival hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and organized by the Seoul Design Foundation, it was in the spotlight even before it began. Among the festival's many events, the DDP Design Launching Fair, an industrial business launch show, showed its strength despite being only in its fifth year and received a lot of attention and focus not only in Korea but also overseas. Since 2019, the DDP Design Launching Fair has lived up to its reputation as a business launching show that has created synergy between small makers and designers to improve the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry and promote the design industry, showcasing new collaborative products every year in the fields of household goods, lighting, furniture, beauty, and fashion.   This year's fair featured products that fit the theme of "Valuable Partnership," a more realistic and serious theme for the environment and people. Following the cheers and admiration on the first day of the fair, which showcased 60 products selected as outstanding among collaborative products developed through collaboration between makers and designers, as well as newly launched products from 12 domestic and international design studios, the awards and opening ceremony on October 25 brought even more applause. First, Mayor Oh Se-hoon attended the awards ceremony at Art Hall 1, where he viewed the main contents of the design exhibition, including the theme exhibition "Wise Cohabitation," the overseas trend exhibition, and the corporate + young designer brand exhibition, and then attended the DDP Design Launching Fair Awards Ceremony. A total of seven teams were awarded, including three for Best Design, one for Best Design (Citizen Award), two for Best Activities, and one for Best Launch. The opening ceremony began with an opening speech by Rhee Kyung-don, CEO of the Seoul Design Foundation, and unlike last year, this year's ceremony was held at Ouillim Square instead of indoors, so both VIPs and visitors to DDP participated in the opening ceremony, marking the beginning of a more meaningful design festival. We are looking forward to next year's DDP Design Launching Fair already as it contains the future of sensory design and the wise will of Korean makers and designers for sustainable living while allowing people to enjoy a rich design festival.

The products created by the 182 teams of matched makers and designers have been completed, and the countdown to the judging has begun, and the products have arrived at DDP one by one. The judging to select the 60 best teams was held on August 21 in the grassy love room on the fourth floor of DDP Design Lab. The products, which were divided into categories such as lighting, beauty, fashion, household goods, and furniture, showed off their own charm and energy, amplifying the anticipation of the viewers. The judging process was divided into launching curator and collaboration curator judging, and there were three criteria: marketability, which evaluates mass production potential through product competitiveness; productivity, which focuses on eye-catching and professional design; and creativity, which determines how original and innovative the product is in a world full of copies.  The judging process, accompanied by the curator`s sharp evaluations, was as serious as ever, with moments of disagreement, but by the time the 60 teams were finally selected, it was a pleasant conclusion. The 60 selected products will be exhibited at DDP alongside Seoul Design 2023 from October 24 to November 2, 2023.  

If you have any resolutions for yourself as a curator for your second year, what would they be?While I was excited and nervous about my first time participating in 2022, this year I feel a strong sense of responsibility. It`s a pressure and a promise that comes naturally when you see that the suggestions, the opinions and disagreements from last year`s fair have been incorporated this year. In fact, I`m well aware that it`s difficult to actively listen to curators` opinions since the fair is organized by a public institution. However, I`m sure that if we improve the problems that arise over time with a long-term perspective, the fair will become a better, more impressive, and more influential fair in the future.You`ve expressed a strong affinity for Mentoring Week throughout.I wouldn`t say that I gave advice, but rather that I had short but in-depth conversations with the participants, ranging from product direction to packaging concerns to questions about processes that are difficult to implement. I was also surprised by an unexpected but very realistic question: what do you need to do to get into the final 60 teams that will have the opportunity to exhibit? I also gave realistic answers and asked the opposite question of whether the fair is really beneficial to them. It was a valuable time for me as well as the participants.  What does putting ESG into practice look like to you?It`s hard to speak comprehensively about such a vast topic, but I`d like to talk about it from the perspective of someone who uses and consumes things rather than someone who makes them, especially when it comes to the environmental impact of things that are so easily thrown away. I think it`s time to "romanticize" the way we treat things, to think about how we can love them again and keep them around longer rather than throwing them away. Each of these small acts of romance will add up to a big act that will make a difference.  What advice would you give to someone preparing to participate in the fair?I hope that with the increased focus on the fair, people will think more deeply about participating in it, because if you`re just satisfied with participating in one high-profile fair and getting one more line on your resume, and you don`t have a plan after the fair is over, it can be a waste of time. You have to think of the fair as one part of a long journey for what you do. You have to use it as a stepping stone, an opportunity to expand, and use it to build a long-lasting, sustainable business.What is a valuable partnership?Most people think of value first, but for me it`s the other way around, I think of partnership first. In order for partnership to be valuable, you have to create a win-win outcome, but partnership is also a battle. It`s important to try not to encroach on the other person`s turf, but also not to compromise, because there`s nothing more unsatisfying than compromise. There`s a moment when you`re bumping against each other and you`re balancing, and you`re naturally coming to an intersection.

If there was a memorable moment during this fair, what would it be?This is my fifth time working with the DDP Design Launching Fair, and I feel a strong sense of responsibility the more I do it. I can say that I feel stronger as I experience how the participants are affected and changed by the curatorial process. Along with this responsibility, it was the face-to-face mentoring that provided many of the most dramatic moments. During the COVID pandemic, I remember being very taken aback when I saw the results of the online process, which were completely different from the direction I had advised. The intensity of the in-person, one-to-one mentoring was intense, as I listened to the participants` questions and drew deep for the advice I gave them. It was a lively discussion, and I was personally excited to see what they would come up with at the end of the mentoring.   There must have been a lot of frank advice during the mentoring.Oh, there`s one thing that I and the participants I mentored overlooked, and that`s the mockup process! It doesn`t have to be perfect, it`s literally a rough sample of your idea points, and very few teams made it. Most of them drew it on their laptops in a program, but when you make it by hand and look at it a bunch, you get a sense of what`s lacking and where you need to fill it in. It`s the best way to gauge the size of the product, and even though we`re in an era where AI is doing a lot of the work and everything is going digital, I still want to make sure you make a mockup. No matter how much you run a three-dimensional product through a program, when you look at it on a monitor, it`s still flat and 2D. What does it mean for designers to live in the age of AI and GPT? There’s no tools better for collaboration than them. You can use AI`s techniques to make things different and richer, and you can use them to save time and mistakes, and you should. But you have to take pride in the fact that only humans can do things that aren’t typed and keep moving forward, and that`s what originality is, and that`s something that even the smartest AI can never, ever match.What does valuable partnership mean to you?As a designer, you have to be socially responsible, and that includes ethics and morals. You have to think about the impact and ripple effect of your products on other people`s lives, and then you have to be careful about what you say and do. If you do, then the value of your work will be even higher.What life advice would you give to young lighting designers?The old saying "where there`s a will, there`s a way" is so true, and if you want to be remembered as a designer who creates lighting that many people love and cherish, the only way to do that is to keep going with a positive mindset that you can succeed even if you have failures and setbacks. It`s hard, of course, but I don`t think there`s anything too hard that you can`t overcome. Don`t compare yourself to others, don`t be envious of others, and be true to yourself!

If you could give us a definition of the DDP Design Launching Fair, what would it be?We’re living in a great period. In the past, all the processes were separate and we couldn`t afford to try anything we didn`t know, but now that we can study, get information, create, and manufacture through various platforms with just one click, I think there are many opportunities to “make it all your own”. The DDP Design Launching Fair is the best medium for this, as designers and makers can communicate and learn what they didn’t know about each other’s part through the matching, and learn the process of mass production through the organizers` various bridges - PR, marketing, distribution, copyright, etc. It is also very important to experience this whole process and make your own products and get copyright.In what ways is it important to have copyright?It`s fun to collaborate with brands, but if I`ve worked hard on something and I don`t have the copyright, I can`t develop it, even if I want to. When I have my own rights to the product, I can develop it into a long-lasting and sustainable product. Of course, you can`t succeed at everything at once. Even if you experience failure, if you don`t make a big deal out of it, if you build your own thing little by little even if it`s small, there will come a point when it will break through.You complimented the new awards that were created this year.Among the teams that were matched at the fair so far and got to the final exhibition, we selected the Best Activity Team. I think it is an award that deserves applause. The encouragement given to the teams that are not just receiving the prize money and exhibiting, but are mass-producing and selling their products is a virtuous cycle, and I am certain that designers and makers united with determination will apply for next year`s fair. As the DDP Design Launching Fair is a support program, I think you can take home as much as you put in, so if you were one of the final exhibition teams at this fair but didn`t make it to mass production, I highly recommend you to try again at the next fair.  What advice do you have for designers just starting out?It`s not a sprint, it`s a marathon, and it takes persistence to keep up with consumers` increasingly sophisticated taste for products that are functional and work well in their spaces. Design and marketing skills are important, but so is the tenacity and temperament to persevere in a world where there are so many people who are good at what they do, and when you do, you`ll find new pleasures in places you never thought possible.

Every year the fair is different, what`s unique about this year?The participants feel more experienced and relaxed. The enthusiastic attitude and willingness to participate in the fair is also different from other years. As we are already in our fifth edition, I can feel that the participants are aware of the intention of the fair and are flexibly moving in the direction of their work. In addition, personally I think it is meaningful that the platform has secured a database of makers who are skilled in handling materials and implementing techniques properly over the years. When I heard that the DDP Design Launching Fair online platform secured a list of makers and asked them to mass-produce products after seeing their portfolios, I cheered, and this is something I am looking forward to even more.  I`m curious about the in-person mentoring week.It was easy to listen to the participants in a one-on-one format, explaining their prototypes with different charms, answering their questions, and giving them everything I knew and as much advice as I could. Among them, there were many questions about pricing when mass-producing products, and after the fair, I applauded their enthusiasm to actively try mass production. Of course, there will be many difficulties, but that is also part of the process to make a good product, so we must overcome it. Oh, and the participants also mentioned that the mentoring time was too short, so I think it would be good to increase the time next year.  What is a "good product" to you? I would like to see designs and products that are pleasant, healthy, and comforting to look at rather than carrying too much meaning. I know I`m going to be living an emptier as I get older, but wouldn`t it be nice to feel happy every time I look at "something" that I`m going to keep around for a long time? After all, a lot of these products will eventually be thrown away... so thinking about how to keep them around for a long time and sustainably is the first step to making them worthwhile.  Since you have such a broad view of products, I`d like to ask you for some advice. It could be applied to fashion accessories, beauty, or stationery, but I think the packaging for these products is a little weak. When you make the packaging, it`s complete, but there are quite a few participants who think of it as something else. It`s also important to think about how the product is displayed with the packaging, so that the product is visually appealing to the consumer at first glance.