The seventh annual Herald Design Forum kicked off Tuesday morning with the slogan “Design for Humanity.”

“Last year, we sparked a conversation about the integration of technology and design. This year, we are talking about the importance of putting people at the center of design no matter what new technology is introduced,” said Herald Corp. CEO Kwon Chung-won in the opening address.

This year’s forum was held at The Shilla Seoul and drew over 700 audience members. Leading designers from all over the world were invited to share insights on how intelligent design using the latest technology could facilitate the sustainable coexistence of man and nature.

“The event will provide a platform for sharing knowledge and experience about sustainable design -- for humanity and for the Earth,” wrote Herald Corp. Chairman Jungwook Hong in his welcome message.

The star-studded list of speakers included: Jaime Hayon, industrial designer and head of Hayon Studio; Claudio Francesco Bellini, CEO and founder of Claudio Bellini Design+Design; Naoto Fukasawa, product designer and head of Naoto Fukasawa Design; Carme Pigem, architect and co-founder of RCR Arquitectes; Seok Yong-bae, shoe design director and CEO of Seok; Aernout Dijkstra–Hellinga, design director of Bugaboo International; George Popescu, CEO and co-founder of Lampix; Sung Jung-gi, product designer and creative director of Daylight; and Gen Terao, founder and CEO of Balmuda Inc.

“I heard that there were some major figures from the design world here today,” said Dijkstra-Hellinga before the forum began. “I am looking forward to sharing insights about how we have pushed design forward at Bugaboo.”

Jaime Hayon began the first session with a talk titled “Designer’s imagination that makes people dream of a better world,” in which he shared the ways in which he found inspiration for design from everyday life.

“My way of looking at design was always observing things. Things like folklore, traveling around and getting glimpses of things have brought me inspiration to design things,” he said.

Hayon’s talk began the “Design for Humanity” session, which was followed by the “Design Thinking” and “The Design 4.0: New Normal Design Economy” sessions. Each of the three sessions was punctuated with a Design Talk, in which the three speakers who had given presentations took time to discuss their ideas with the audience members.

A collaborative session called HERALD X DIGIT ran concurrently with the forum, where students interested in architecture were invited to meet pivotal figures in the field to discuss how design could help achieve balance between people and the environment.

Students who attended the session posed questions to Carmen Pigem, such as those about the most important aspect and most often-used materials when taking on new projects.

Speakers including Fukasawa, Hayon, Bellini and Pigem also took part in Open Lounge sessions to share more stories about their work. The sessions, which were open to all participants of the Herald Design Forum, were broadcast in real time through Facebook Live.

The sessions were designed to give participants and journalists at the forum a chance to interact with the speakers in a more intimate setting. At the Open Lounge sessions, students took advantage of the opportunity to ask for career advice from major gurus in their fields of interest.

The Premium Talk session concluded the one-day forum, giving panelists a platform to discuss the Design Wave and how design is instigating changes in our everyday lives. Bellini and Baek Hee-sung, CEO of KEAB Architecture Design, spoke about the power of design to change the future, while George Popescu and Sung Jung-gi shared their insights on the potential use of design to bring about change.

The Herald Design Forum was launched in 2011 by Herald Corp., creating an arena where the top names in design from all over the world come together to share their ideas on how design changes the world. Over the past seven years, it has grown to become Asia’s largest festival dedicated to design. 

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)