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Strategy through design: The DDP Icograda Poster Exhibition

In advance of the recent inauguration of the DDP (Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Park) in Seoul, Icograda was asked to assemble the DDP Advisory Committee to develop a brand platform and guiding themes that would facilitate future communication with the publ

11.11.2014 Features

“A Stadium of Design”

If nature, society, and economy can dream, play and develop together, the latest architectural design by Zaha Hadid will have accomplished its goal - to create a multi-cultural complex for the Seoul Metropolitan Government, as a key symbolic landmark for South Korea’s innovative Design Agenda.

The DDP (Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Park) is a 38,000 sq/m structure with a twinkling aluminum façade, set in the cultural hub of the historic district of Seoul. It includes exhibition and conference halls, design and media labs, lounges, markets, a massive urban-eco park, and the largest museum dedicated solely to design in the world. It is an exploration ground for various corporate design products as well as a place for international cultural exchange and cooperation.

"The design integrates the park and plaza seamlessly as one, blurring the boundary between architecture and nature in a continuous, fluid landscape," said Zaha Hadid Architects in a statement.

DDP: Dream, Design, Play?

For the inauguration of the complex on 21 March 2014, and in collaboration with Don Ryun Chang, Professor at Hongik University and Icograda Past President (2007-2009), Icograda was asked to assemble an international DDP Advisory Committee as part of a branding consortium. The Committee’s mandate was to develop a DDP brand platform and guiding themes that would facilitate future communication with the public and various stakeholders, with ‘place-making for people’ as a key concept.

The committee included the following designers and thinkers:

Hervé Matine
?Mervyn Kurlansky?
David Grossman?
Jacques Lange?
Robert L. Peters
?Victor Margolin?
Russell Kennedy?
Teal Triggs?
Ric Grefe

Icograda DDP Poster Exhibition?

As part of the advisory process, the Committee would ultimately conceive of a poster project to embrace and celebrate DDP’s vision: to share design with the public.

Design by Garth Walker (South Africa)

Renowned international graphic designers were invited by the Icograda Advisory Committee to reflect on the themes of the DDP. On display from 24 March to 31 June of 2014, the exhibition promoted awareness of the DDP as the world’s newest platform for the exploration of the social design agenda.

In a space that has already seen 3 million visitors, the Poster Exhibit enhanced public engagement with the launch of the site, celebrating design for people, design with people, and social co-creativity.

Poster designs were created by top international graphic designers:

Milton Glaser (USA)?
Frida Larios (El Salvador)
?Russell Kennedy (Australia)
?Brian Collins (USA)
Chang Don Ryun (Korea)
?Cho Hyun (Korea)
?Christina Chiappini (Italy)
David Lancashire (Australia)
?Garth Walker (South Africa)
?Herve Matine (France)
?Jacques Lange (South Africa)
?Kan Tai-Keung (Hong Kong)
Lee Yong Je (Korea)
?Mervyn Kurlansky (UK)
Michel de Boer (Netherlands)
?Mitsuo Katsui (Japan)
Park Kum Jun (Korea),
?Robert L. Peters (Canada)
Sadik Karamustafa (Turkey)
Yoon Hoseob (Korea)

Ying yang, Mayan ruins, afterimages, tangram games, whimsy alongside seriousness, stark red (compared to grey), and the ephemeral image of floating plastic garbage bags flocking Korean streets - there is no singular expression for something that is, by nature, manifold.

Photos courtesy of Jun Won Yoh

The themes developed by the branding Advisory Committee and expressed by the poster designs, celebrate the DDP as a positive realization of a grand, civic-minded concept, and identify an optimistic shift in the relationship between designers, public spaces and governments.

To see all DDP poster designs, view the exhibition catalogue here.

In advance of the recent inauguration of the DDP (Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Park) in Seoul, Icograda was asked to assemble the DDP Advisory Committee to develop a brand platform and guiding themes that would facilitate future communication with the publ