Viewing plastic materials through the prism of Korean design

MIAMI (Nov. 11, 7:45 p.m. ET) — South Korean designer EunSook Kwon has an overarching view of how plastics are perceived as materials, both in Asia and North America, and from the perspective of professional designers and design students alike. And she has witnessed some dramatic changes in that regard during her varied career.

In addition to consulting for some of the Korea’s most innovative manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and LG Corp., Kwon also taught design in Korea, earned her Ph.D. at Ohio State University, and founded the industrial design program at the University of Houston, where she now serves as a professor and its director. And a year ago she served as director general of the 21-day Seoul Design Olympiad, which brought more than 2 million people to the South Korean capital in October 2008.

In a video interview at the Industrial Designers Society of America’s recent international conference in Miami, Kwon shared her views on how far plastics have come in the eyes of many. In many ways, plastics have come full circle. From their start as an innovative, new material years ago, their image -- at least in Asia -- got highjacked by the concept of being cheap, disposable and representative of some of the less desirable aspects of American culture. More recently, driven in large part by the efforts of leading consumer product manufacturers, Kwon suggests that fairly negative image of plastics has, in many cases, been transformed into one of a material that can offer design flexibility and lightweight strength, along with a high-tech, sophisticated – even elegant – aura.

And while she welcomes the wealth of materials information available on the Internet, Kwon still wishes she had access to more tangible examples of materials to use in her design classes, as she educates tomorrow’s designers about the vast materials options available to them today. View video.

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