Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden and Mrs. Kim Jung-sook, First Lady of the Republic of Korea, honoured the very first award ceremony of the Korea + Sweden Young Design Award with their attendance. The ceremony took place at the beautiful premises of Svensk Form at Skeppsholmen in Stockholm.
Korea + Sweden Young Design Award is a new design award, initiated by the Embassy of Sweden in Korea, the Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP), and IKEA Korea to recognize, inspire and enable young Korean designers, to cross borders with new and surprising collaborations in art, fashion, architecture, industrial design and other design disciplines, and to show how design worldwide can produce great ideas to empower people to make a difference.
The award is inspired by the Ung Svensk Form (Young Swedish Design) exhibition that was shown in Seoul in 2017. Emerging designers selected by the Ung Svensk Form teamed up with IKEA Korea and Korean design students for that exhibition, and a seed to the new design award was sown.
Ung Svensk Form is an annual jury-rated award and exhibition which since 1998 has been run by Svensk Form, the world’s oldest design organization. Since the start over twenty years ago, it has been an important spring¬board for young Swedish designers. In addition to the annual traveling exhibition in Sweden, Ung Svensk Form has often been shown in international contexts – many times in collaboration with the Swedish Institute.
“Not only does the award promote young, talented people and their ideas, it also enables for Korean and Swedish designers to connect. I´m very proud that the Swedish Institute, together with Svensk Form and the Swedish Embassy, could contribute to the show of Young Swedish Design in Seoul in 2017 and thereby spark the idea for a long term collaboration”, says Madeleine Sjöstedt, Director General of the Swedish Institute.
The winning pieces are Letter Desk by Hayoung Lee, DIY House Kit by Sanghee Park och The New Handle by Yujin Kang. Togehther with three of their Swedish colleagues from Ung Svensk Form 2019 – Tonje Halvorsen, Simon Skinner and Jan Klingler – they participated in a talk focused on sustainability, inclusive design and the challenge of being a young designer today.
Mats Widbom, CEO of Svensk Form, Madeleine Sjöstedt, Director General of the Swedish Institute,
Eune Ju-hyun, President of the Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP) and André Schmidtgall,
Country Retail Manager at IKEA Korea also participate in the ceremony, that was arranged by these organizations in collaboration with the Embassy of Sweden in Seoul.
“We are delighted that the exchange of design is contributing o a deeper cultural diplomacy between Korea and Sweden. We hope to see the Korea+Sweden Young Design Award become the enabler for the global design industry to create a better world for everyone through inclusive design, and shape the stepping stone for Korean design to spread into the rest of the world,” said Eune Juhyun, President of KIDP.
Design is a strong and growing part of the cultural and creative sectors in both Sweden and Korea, and the award is hoped to further deepen the relations between the countries.
“We are very proud of the 2019 Korea+Sweden Young Design, a platform for promising young designers of Korea to show the world that good design has the power to create a positive future. We look forward to continuing our co-creation to inspire and empower young talents, and build stronger ties between Korea and Sweden,” said Andre Schmidtgall, Managing Director of IKEA Korea.
For more information on the Korea + Sweden Young Design Award, please visit: http://ksyda.com/eng/sub/introduction.html