Public Design Festival 2022 consists of exhibition, pop-ups and playground

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Public Design Festival 2022 consists of exhibition, pop-ups and playground

The entrance of the Public Design Festival 2022 exhibition has a playground for visitors. [KOREA CRAFT AND DESIGN FOUNDATION]

The entrance of the Public Design Festival 2022 exhibition has a playground for visitors. [KOREA CRAFT AND DESIGN FOUNDATION]

 
The Public Design Festival 2022, organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Craft and Design Foundation, consists of an exhibition at the Culture Station Seoul 284 in Jung District, central Seoul, and pop-up stores and markets at Seongsu-dong in Seongdong District, eastern Seoul.

 
According to Ahn Byung-hak, the exhibition’s director and a typography professor at Hongik University, public design aims to solve everyday problems in society for a safer and more elegant life.
 
“It’s time to question what the nature of design is,” Ahn said during a press conference last week. “Like how is design going to make life sustainable, and not in a way laws are already doing? Design isn’t necessarily an expertise — even the sweaters our mothers knit for us contain love and the power to shape the society we live in. And it’s our wish that this exhibition conveys its values.”
 
An installation view of the exhibition. This section questions the sustainability of public design, including trash cans, ″no parking″ signs and restroom signs. [KOREA CRAFT AND DESIGN FOUNDATION]

An installation view of the exhibition. This section questions the sustainability of public design, including trash cans, ″no parking″ signs and restroom signs. [KOREA CRAFT AND DESIGN FOUNDATION]

 
The exhibition displays public documents, like resident registration forms, to allow visitors to understand that there are more efficient and systematic ways to design these templates, Ahn said.
 
Like its Korean title, which translates to “Road, Body, Life, Ground,” the exhibition shows a variety of designs, like an enormous playground in the first section (which visitors are free to play in), a small indoor marketplace that sells organic and zero-waste products, and the process of how environmentally-friendly paper is made.
 
In Seongsu-dong, which is currently one of Seoul’s trendiest areas, the festival teamed up with some 50 local brands, including cafes and fashion boutiques.
 
The Culture Station Seoul 284 in Jung District, central Seoul [KOREA CRAFT AND DESIGN FOUNDATION]

The Culture Station Seoul 284 in Jung District, central Seoul [KOREA CRAFT AND DESIGN FOUNDATION]

 
“Public design can be as minor as the coffee we drink every day, and what we do in our daily lives can influence messages of sustainability,” said Kim Jae-won, who organized the Seongsu portion of the festival. Kim is the director of Atelier Écriture, a design planning company. “We chose Seongsu-dong because there are a ton of trendy shops and cafes in the area, and it’s like a headquarters where people like to go.”
 
As part of the festival many pop-up stores and markets can be found at LCDC Seoul, a building that describes itself as a lifestyle curation shop, similar to a boutique.  
 
The Public Design Festival 2022 ends Oct. 30. The exhibition is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and is closed on Mondays. There is no admission fee.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]
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