How receptive are your clients to bold design approaches? What strategies do you employ to encourage clients to embrace more daring design?
It is certainly true that our design approach is bold. We prefer progressive design projects, and there are many customers who expect and rely on our boldness. The design of products with new features and perspectives, such as startups, for example, must be bold. Conversely, there are projects that require strict control of the degree of boldness because the user, usage environment, specifications, etc. are very conservative, such as safety handles and medical devices.
However, although it is also passive in this category, it tries to propose a design that can be new and progressive. In order to adjust the temperature difference-point-point- with the client and to elicit consensus, the project proceeds with a process called Phase 0. P0 is the stage of setting the direction of the project through free and in-depth research and ideas based on various data and requirements obtained from the client after the kickoff. The idea at this time is mainly an iteration of a mind map consisting of emotional keywords centered on adjectives or adjectives.
“Our strategy is to bridge the gap between our vision and the client’s current perspective, ensuring that the final design aligns with their needs and preferences.”
Focusing on the main keywords selected through several internal workshops, it presents a big direction ahead of the design, using concise wording and visual images in one sentence. Visual images are often newly created based on physical properties or emotions. In P0 we pull out the direction that the client has been thinking for a long time, so the client sympathizes with that direction.
If the proposed direction deviates significantly from the client’s expectations, we engage in a collaborative process to find common ground. Our strategy is to bridge the gap between our vision and the client’s current perspective, ensuring that the final design aligns with their needs and preferences.
If the direction we propose feels difficult for the client to accept, we adjust it at this stage. Our design strategy involves aligning and persuading the client’s vision of ‘today’ with what we propose as ‘today.’ What we see as ‘today’ may feel like ‘tomorrow’ (a somewhat distant future) to the client, or their ‘today’ might be influenced by someone else’s ‘today,’ which would eventually become the past. To avoid suggesting a future that’s too far off or reverting to the past, we refine the direction in the P1 phase following P0. This involves proposing a ‘today’ that resonates with the direction agreed upon during P0, which serves as the foundation for our design roadmap.
If that happens, the client chooses his or her own ‘today’ through consideration and review. From the second half of the design stage, we devise, verify, and propose a realization method through prototyping so that the selected design can become the client’s today.
“We prefer progressive design projects, and there are many customers who expect and rely on our boldness.”
If it is a product that is premised on innovation, it must be premised on challenges and development, so the client also works on development with confidence, and we actively cooperate.
How has the global popularity of Korean culture, or “Hallyu,” influenced the role of graphic design in South Korea? Do you see opportunities or challenges arising from this trend?
It had a positive effect on self-esteem and confidence. The fact that the Korean Wave is at the center of the public and trends is very encouraging in design. The center of design has always been Western. Of course, the design centered on high-end or high-end brands is still Western-centered, but there are brands and products that are apotable and excellent in design for the public in Korea. Apart from the global recognition of the product and the brand, we expect a good opportunity to come to us in terms of supplying design capabilities. We have been working on a design project for IT devices with startups in the United States for many years.
Korea is a place where quick and compact processes are possible, such as time response, high-quality design results, infrastructure that produces mockups and prototypes, and connection to mass production. In addition, the application of AI, digital technology, etc. is also active. However, it’s a pity that it’s still staying at a cost-effective design supplier.
As the area to which design is subject is expanding to furniture, lighting, and other props for life, I hope that there will be more places that need Korea’s design capabilities, and I hope that there will be more opportunities to collaborate.
Can you share any projects from your career that you are especially proud of?
Bloomengine
It was a project that first tried to harmonize physical function and emotional role through the first-generation and second-generation design of Bloom Engine, which provides the essential elements necessary for the growth of plants such as light, water, and air, and share the process from seeds to sprouting, growing and blooming.
Through this project, we gained a deep insight into light, transparent material, and waterproofing light by working together with polite, active and excellent clients about design, product design-prototyping, and mass production follow-ups, and in addition to product design, we expanded to branding design such as packages, apps, and the web to provide a valuable experience that consistently conveys the ideas of brands and products.
Calzone
While working on a client project that uses silicone materials, I wanted to make silicone items that can be used more freely, enjoyable and pleasantly, not products with clear uses and functions. Calzone comes from the name of a half-moon-shaped pizza in Italy, and it’s a plate and pouch that can be spread out and folded in the shape of a half-moon. It is harmless to the human body, heat-resistant, and has been designed and applied with a press fit that can be comfortably fixed on a single solid silicone material.
Whether we apply colors as beautiful as we develop ourselves, or develop an optimized press fit through a lot of testing, or effort in the production phase. As a client project, it often progresses until the pre-production stage, and the mass production development experience that is desperately needed after design is very rare.
By conducting its own project, it has a valuable and good experience in design – prototyping – technology development – mass production, etc. At this time, BDCI’s expertise and uniqueness in silicone materials have accumulated. In addition, the experience of being able to reach the end user was also made possible through Calzone.
Home Safety System
Every design project has a target. Most refer to the buyers who pay for the product, and many designs define the market value of the target. The home safety system initially started with a single safety handle design project installed in a bathroom or wall and was aimed at single elderly or elderly people with limited mobility.
In the pre-design phase, we attached very much importance to – grasping the client’s intentions and attitudes and deriving the design direction — we shared and gained empathy with the client a new perspective on the product of safety and the main users who use it.
Active seniors who want to move actively and spontaneously in the gloomy customization of ‘an elderly person with limited mobility’, or a prospective senior who wants to move actively and voluntarily (of course, seniors who are really uncomfortable with mobility are also included).
Whether it’s a single person living alone, a user living with a family, the function and design of the product is not different depending on the user’s home environment and economic ability, but we wanted to propose an inclusivity that can cover everyone. To do so, the safety handle was not just made of cold metal, but a slightly softer, non-slip silicone material, and was able to apply a beautiful and diverse color that could contribute to the interior while giving a sense of confidence.
Starting with a short safety handle that is 000cm long, we drew a roadmap with the client to extend to the safety system throughout the house. This safety system is a design that sustains, relies on, and sometimes improves athletic performance, so that it can be placed throughout the house, such as objects, and even aesthetic roles in space, such as art.
Rather than recalling negative images such as old age, sadness, loneliness, depression, and coldness, it was an important project that showed that pivoting into positive images, such as relief, trust, beauty, and free movement, was possible through design.
Mobile Hybrid CBCT
The Mobile Hybrid Cone Beam CT is not merely a clinical instrument. It’s a compact, approachable device that proactively engages with patients experiencing anxiety related to surgery and isolation within our smaller healthcare facilities.
The surgery requires a variety of equipment, and the medical staff’s movements become urgent and complex. Due to the covid-19, precision devices are needed even in isolated general wards. If we create a comfortable environment for the medical staff, it will benefit the patient through good surgical results. To rotate the exposed gantry stably, the skeleton design was modified.
Designed with a soft impression that has never been seen before. The compact design allows autonomous operation in narrow operating rooms, and the large bore allows the scanning of large areas in a short period of time.
The ultra-low dose does not require radiation shielding, and the use of a general power source eliminates the need for electrical work. This is in consideration of the dense hospitals in Asia. Accurate diagnoses will be possible in hospitals across Asia that do not have the benefit of expensive medical equipment in the US and Europe. Now we are ready to respond if the pandemic comes again.
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