ddp design fair

The 2021 DDP Design Fair attracted a lot of attention for its products with experimental approaches based on sophisticated designs, fresh ideas and innovative technologies and materials such as a one-person lounge chair tailored to each user’s body with 3D printing technology, a home office lighting piece made from pipe materials that can be transformed into various forms, a wall-mounted lamp or a floor lamp, and an incense holder that delivers the value of emptying the mind and feeling focused, especially at a time when many people want time to relax and refresh themselves.

On October 21, the 2021 DDP Best Design Award was held on the special stage of the DDP Art Hall 1 and awarded the seven finalists. The products were put to a vote by citizens and reviewed by professionals. Mayor Sehoon Oh attended the award ceremony and presented the “Seoul Mayor’s Award.”

Among 162 products of 162 teams developed through collaboration over five months under the theme of “Wonderful Life,” the seven finalists of the 2021 DDP Best Design Award were selected in three stages: curator review in the first stage, public voting in the second stage and expert review in the third stage. Each team of the three categories (furniture, lighting, lifestyle and living) received the “Seoul Mayor's Award”, the grand prize, while four teams received the “Seoul Design Foundation CEO Award”, the excellence prize. Among 162 design products of the 2021 DDP Design Fair, 106 teams were selected through the product review based on the real size in the first stage. For the selected teams, 2 million won was provided for the prototype development so that they can focus more on the product quality. After that, the top 50 teams were selected by adding up online public votes in the second stage, and the seven finalists (Furniture: 3 teams, Lighting: 2 teams, Lifestyle & Living: 2 teams) were selected through the expert review in the third stage.

The main evaluation items are marketability, suitability for exhibition and creativity. In the third stage, well-known distributors, multi-brand store merchandisers and buyers in Korea participated as judges to evaluate the product’s marketability and feasibility of mass production. Online public votes were also tallied up together to reflect consumer preferences. Jihoon Ha, the Furniture Curator of the 2021 DDP Design Fair and professor of Kaywon University of Art & Design, said, “There were many products using new technologies and eco-friendly materials, and the versatility of products grabbed the attention of many people.”

The seven finalists will receive various benefits including 6 million won for the cost of mass production, the opportunity to sell their products online and offline via the DDP Design Store, advertising on monthly design magazines and major daily newspapers and the opportunity for an online exhibition on the crowdfunding platform. The winning teams will also be provided with comprehensive marketing support as “up-and-coming designers of the year”.

The winners of the “Seoul Mayor's Award” — the grand prize — are three products: a one-person chair called “The Butterfly” (Studio Plastic x Jh Studio); a home office lighting piece called “Light Now No.1” that can be transformed into various forms (Makemake x Hwangduck Engineering); and an incense holder called “Bincense” (DSLSM x likethix).

○ The Butterfly (Furniture) : It is a one-person chair made based on 3D technology. Studio Plastic designers Sido Kim and Taeyeon Lee developed a chair tailored to each user’s body, which is suitable for the era of hyper-personalization. They are planning to add more color options.

○ Light Now No.1 (Lighting) : It has received the “Seoul Mayor's Award in the lighting category for two consecutive years since last year. It is a product that uses the characteristics of pipe materials and can be transformed into various combinations including stand, wall-mounted or floor type. Makemake designer Bonggeon Shin said that collaborating with a great maker through the DDP Design Fair was such a valuable experience.

○ Bincense (Lifestyle & Living) : It is an incense holder that burns an incense stick and a product for your office that delivers the value of emptiness and concentration. DSLSM designer Sungmook Lim said he developed this product to help people empty their mind of complex thoughts and focus on one important thing while burning an incense stick, especially at a time when people spend more time at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The “Seoul Design Foundation CEO Award” was given to four products: a series of modular furniture pieces that can be expanded along the curved space or wall endlessly according to the user’s environment (TTTT x Give&Take); a piece of furniture for single-person households that reflects Korea’s traditional beauty (Raan Bang x OUTRO); a set of flower pots with holes on the top inspired by Sunuimi Ceramics’ signature openwork technique and the plum blossoms of Dancheong (Studio Mindeulae x Sunuimi Ceramics); and a piece of 3D-printed lighting that can control the shape and amount of light desired by the user with the light source placed in the center of the polyhedron (intenxiv x Seojeon Lighting).

Please check out our official website (http://ddpdesignfair-ex.or.kr) and our Instagram page for further information about the winners of <2021 DDP Best Design Award>.