Seoul Design Competition

+ Call for Entries
The Seoul Metropolitan Government will host the Seoul Design Competition aspart of the Seoul Design Olympiad, a large-scale international event whichwill present Seoul’s design vision as World Design Capital (WDC). The Seoul Design Competition is to be held under the theme of ‘Design isAIR’ with the goal to uncover environmentally-friendly and creative designsolutions for a sustainable city life in the future. Designers and studentsof the design world are welcome to participate. We expect activeparticipation of talented designers around the world to feel and breathethe fresh and strong energy of a design city of Seoul, which is striving totransform itself into a creative, cultural and ecological city throughdesign.

+ Organiser
Seoul Metropolitan Government

+ Goals & Objectives
Seoul is embracing the future with specific design visions and strategiesto deal with anticipated global and local environmental problems. The goal of this competition is to envision the sustainable urban life of the future in support of the new vision of Seoul. By broadening the scope of the futuristic ideas through this international competitiveness, the Seoul Metropolitan Government would like to incorporate the winning design schemes into its “New Visions of Seoul”. The winning design will be reflected into urban projects such as “Hangang Renaissance” and the “Clean and Green Seoul” projects to produce new urban products, systems and environments.

The objectives of the Seoul Design Competition 2008 are:

To identify new design opportunities for sustainable city life
• To research and explore living design that uses natural elements such as earth, water, fire, and wind
• To seek creative design solutions to be applied to future city design projects
• To promote young and talented designers around the world through the Seoul Design Competition
• To enhance public design awareness of the world through the promotion and exhibition of the Seoul Design Competition with creative and innovative design solutions

+Theme: Design is AIR - Sustainable City Life of the Future
The 1st Seoul Design Competition has chosen its theme as “Design is Air”,in relation to ubiquitous technology and sustainable city life of the future. Seoul is changing and developing quite rapidly and the citizens of Seoul are adding to the past transformation through constructing new subway lines,implementing a new bus line system, designing new buildings,and creating more green parks around the city. All of this is being done under the motto of “Clean and Attractive Global City”. Seoul is striving to renew its cityscape from one that isplain and practical to one that is environmentally-friendly, and convenient and pleasant to live in.(Keywords: Sustainable, Environmentally-Friendly, Invisible Energy Flow,Alive and Ubiquitous)

+ Field of Competition
① Earth(地) Environment
Earth as a materialistic base of human life: architecture,landscape, space, etc.
â‘¡ Water(æ°´) Communication in Flow
Water as conversation and information flows: graphic design,information design, animation, etc.
③ Wind(風) Experience in Media City Scape
Wind as a medium for daily experiences of urban life:communication, information service system, design experience and transportation equipment, etc.
④ Fire(火) Objects in Urban Culture
Fire as mediator among earth, water and wind, and a new facilitator of culture: objects and creative concepts whichcross the boundary of products, fashion and industrial art.

+Eligibility
No limitation (Students and Professionals in the field of design around the world)

+ Jury
Professional group of jurors consists of no more than 10 design experts around the world

+ Judging Criteria
Creativity, Innovative Concept, User Experience, Appropriate Technology, Aesthetics, Appropriateness to the theme

+ Judging Process
• Stage Ⅰ: select honorable mentions among all applicants
• Stage Ⅱ: The exhibition submissions (panel and real object or mock-up) are evaluated and the finalists are announced. Top ranked finalists will be invited to the awarding ceremony on Oct. 30, 2008.

+ Award
• Grand Prize (1) USD 5,000 + Invitation
• Gold Prize (1 for each category) USD 2,500 + Invitation
• Silver Prize (1 for each category) USD 1,500 + Invitation
• Bronze Prize (Max. 10 regardless of category) USD 1,000
• People’s Choice Award (Several) USD 500 up to 3,000 (Selected by citizen’s vote)
• Honorable Mention (Selected from 1st Stage): Medal and supplementary award

+ Timeline
March 24, 2008: Announcement of Seoul Design Competition 2008
June 10 ~ July 10, 2008: Stage 1 Online Submission Period (http://sdo.seoul.go.kr)
July 31, 2008: Stage 1 Winner Announced
August 11 ~ September 16, 2008: Stage 2 Submission
October 10 ~ October 30, 2008: Winning Entries Exhibition
October 30, 2008: Award Ceremony on the closing date of Seoul Design
Olympiad 2008
December 20, 2008: Publication

+ How to Apply & Submit
• Filll in the application form and attach design proposal at SDO website
• Stage 1 Submission: Online Submission at SDO website Application Form, Panel (JPEG, 300dpi, less than 10MB), Explanation (MS-Word, 5page)
• Stage 2 Submission: To be announced after Stage 1
• Competitors can submit up to 3 pieces of work.
• Official language is English.

+ Inquiry
Design Planning Division, Seoul Design Headquarters Seoul Metropolitan Government
• Website: http://sdo.seoul.go.kr
• Telephone: +82 (0)2 6361 3434
• Email: [email protected]
Phone inquiries are welcome between 9 to 18 (GMT +9).

Further information will be available on the competition website soon.

Official Website: http://sdo.seoul.go.kr/english/index.html