LAUSR

The Past Thirty years after hosting its first Olympic Games—the Seoul Summer Olympics in 1988—the Republic of Korea was given the honor of hosting a second—the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, which took place February 9–25, 2018. I was working in Korea as a corporate identity designer at the time of the 1988 Olympics, and for the 2018 Olympics, I had the privilege of chairing the Design Advisory Committee. The committee played an instrumental role in shaping the holistic design program of the Games and presenting PyeongChang, and South Korea, to the world. In the intervening years, I have been part of a design industry that has changed almost beyond recognition, much like South Korea. The moment seems opportune to reflect on this course of change, the present to which it has brought us, and the challenges that lie ahead, some of which are unique to the Korean situation and some of which are faced by design and designers all around the world. When Seoul hosted the Summer Olympics in 1988, South Korea was just emerging from a long period of authoritarian government and massive economic transformation. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, economic activity had centered on rapid industrialization and production for export, directed more or less by government decree. Design’s role in this scheme was as a servant to export-led industry, styling and beautifying goods for international consumption. As the economy matured, design matured along with it, soon outgrowing its subjugation to manufacturing to take its place among the pantheon of creative industries. While its coming of age followed a well-worn path, Korean design now finds itself in unmapped territory; in this predicament, it is not alone—defining the designer’s role in a postindustrial digital economy is foremost among the challenges the design world presently faces. However, it is perhaps only in South Korea that one could have experienced what is essentially a localized version of the broad history of industrial design in the span of a single career.