ddp design fair

Lighting Curator Mee Jeong : We don’t have a lot of teams in the Lighting category. Although we have a small number of teams, we encouraged several teams to work on collaborations, and they are working really hard right now. We’ve already had meetings for the curation process for the past two weeks. The quality level varies from team to team, however, every team is doing its best so we are expected to achieve great results. Companies which participated last year are working even harder. Those who are attending for the first time this year are in a bit of a bind but they are following the curation guidelines without difficulty. 

Professor Jihoon Ha : In fact, our situation is similar to the Lighting category. There aren't many designers participating this year but I talked with CEO Donghoon Sohn about increasing the scale of the project by pairing several designers with one company. For recycling, we are in contact with Evergreen, a face mask manufacturer, as well as Innisfree and Amore Pacific. iCOOP KOREA also decided to proceed with many designers and is planning to get the machines that were used from the project called “Precious Plastic” and make recycled products on the spot. We have not decided to how to use padded jackets but we might have a chance to work with the Dongdaemun Sewing Association. The results of recycling will turn out to be interesting if we get connected with a company as well.

CEO Kyungha Han : There are a lot of designers and makers participating in the Lifestyle and Living category so it is quite difficult to expect the same quality level from all companies. Everyone is working hard, and the official mentoring ended last week. Mentoring helped the participants head in the right direction little by little, and I believe we would be able to raise the quality to a certain level before the deadline.

CEO Donghoon Sohn : We have a lot of people participating in the Lifestyle and Living category so it looks like barriers to entry are very low on the surface. However, the smaller the product size gets, the more likely people are going to notice the subtle difference in the details and quality. That’s why many teams are most sensitive about the schedule now. However, we are trying to figure out what kind of content the participants are able to show and how to organize and showcase the exhibition. Now that the official mentoring is over, we are expecting to see results with high quality.

Professor Kanghyun Lee : We received the list of collaborative products two days ago and reviewed which products would be unveiled. There are a lot of products in the Lifestyle and Living category so we are spending a lot of time thinking about how to display them in the exhibition. For the first time, we now have spaces that show different concepts of the companies so we are constantly talking about the direction together during meetings with the companies and styling the spaces. Thanks to the cooperation of the companies, the spaces are expected to reveal new aspects of the companies. We also have received most of the new designs for the theme hall. We are currently considering which space will look best and focusing our efforts on what to include in the content. If the elements of the content go well together, we will the find the right space for each content. We will also encourage participation from the audience by featuring expansive outdoor displays, just as Professor Jihoon Ha mentioned. We are still talking about collaboration because the story of its creation is more important than the work itself.

Professor Jeongho Park : As part of our promotional and marketing efforts, I wrote a feature article about the fair in the column I write for the Electronic Times. In that column, I described the concept of this year’s DDP Design Fair and mentioned that the collaboration between designers and makers will be a great opportunity to generate new business opportunities especially for makers who are suffering severe impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. I am going to write my next column for the Hankook Ilbo. I will provide full details about the fair since the column will be an in-depth and lengthy article. I would like to introduce the participating companies and institutions and write about what we have done so far to build upon the achievements of other regions, especially the Nordic countries. Lastly, the PR and marketing agency asked me to write articles for the Kyunghyang Shinmun and the Electronic Times, and I agreed to do it. As digital promotional efforts are becoming more important in the COVID-19 era, I also asked YouTube content creators to mention about the fair. I would like to promote the fair in some way through YouTube channels including Shuka which has 1.5 million YouTube subscribers and my own channel called 3 percent TV which has 1.5 million YouTube subscribers as well. For sales, we talked to the foundation not long ago about working with the “Innobiz Association” to create opportunities that can lead to increased revenue. All members of Innobiz are companies with a revenue more than 15 billion won. I have been talking with the chairman of the Innobiz Association by sending an official request to discuss what the Innobiz Association can support such as encouraging middle market enterprises or large companies to buy and resell the products of makers or sell such products through the company’s website.

Professor Nayoung Kim : We have already had three mentoring sessions for students who are participating in the fair. Based on this opportunity, various mentors with extensive experience could identify each student’s potentials and abilities, and students are also working on their career goals step by step. On August 23, mentoring program participants will have mock interviews with the CEOs of companies they would like to work for. The mock interview seems to be the final stage for students to put the final touches on their resume and portfolio. I think the next stage of the process, starting from September, will be matching students with companies that can lead to real job opportunities. Students have struggled to find a clear career path before joining this program so we would like to unleash their potentials, open up new possibilities and support them to eventually get a job or start a business throughout this program.