ddp design fair

Welcome to your partnership with DDP as a designer and marketer!

I collaborate with DDP on various projects, and as a curator, I have a lot of respect for the DDP Design Launching Fair, and seeing it evolve year after year, I feel a sense of pride. However, despite all the publicity, I`m a little disappointed that the participation rate is a little low. I`m looking forward to more active participation next year.

Do you have any ideas of your own for increasing engagement? 

Active participation requires active support. In addition to financial support, we need to ensure the autonomy of designers and actively embrace their creative side, so that they can naturally contribute to the national industry. Of course, I don`t think that the system can be created in one go. It`s difficult, but it`s something that many people are aware of, so I`m sure it will change gradually, little by little.

What would your advice be for product makers?

If you`re not doing fine art, you`re doing it for money or to make money, so you have to be flexible and accepting. In my case, when I`m commissioned by a brand, I focus on how I can help the brand make more money, and of course, I run into a lot of barriers along the way, but I think you have to be flexible and accepting of other people`s opinions. This advice can also be applied to trend collaboration with AI: as a tool, AI can be very helpful, but the ideas and the planning behind it can only be done by humans, so you have to enjoy collaborating with AI. You have to be a designer and a marketer and see the direction, and even if you don`t like the systemic elements of AI, you can`t be the only one going backwards or stagnating when the whole world is going in that direction.

You could say it’s the attitude needed as a designer in these fast-paced and diverse times.

I`m often surprised when I go to a cafe in a big city, let alone Seoul, the owner is not even a design major, but they have so much sense. So designers nowadays have to be really alert, because the days of it working by just being pretty are over, and you have to always be accompanied by the words “different” or “unexpected”. In a way, you`ve jumped into the big competitive sea of the design game, you might as well try to win while you’re at it.

What does "valuable partnership“ mean to you?

I worked on a project for young adults who have to leave an orphanage when they turn 18 because their state protection ends. I remodeled the space where they live temporarily for free, and I hope they don`t just stay in a nice space, but receive healing and positive energy to take their first steps into society. I`m thinking of remodeling for senior citizens as well, hoping to make it a regular event instead of a one-off. As a designer who believes in the power of space, I think it`s a worthwhile endeavor.