Prime Minister Chung Hong-won and ruling Saenuri Party chairman Rep. Hwang Woo-yea were among the some 300 high profile figures attending the event Monday evening celebrating the 60th anniversary of The Korea Herald which also marked the start of the Herald Design Week. Representatives of 19 diplomatic missions to Korea including the U.K., Paraguay and Poland were also in attendance.

“The festival of design the Herald Corp. begins today is also a new challenge based on imagination and creativity,” Prime Minister Chung said in his congratulatory speech, adding that design will aid in realizing and expanding the concept of creative economy, which is the key economic goal of the Park Geun-hye administration. 

Although the event opened with the usual congratulatory remarks from the prime minister and other prominent figures, it panned out in an unusual pattern.

Unlike typical corporate anniversaries, the remarks were followed by short lectures from three of the speakers who will take to the podium during the Herald Design Week.

The speakers ― Tim Brown of the design firm IDEO, organic food entrepreneur Fraser Doherty and designer Don Tae Lee ― provided quick insight into their views on creativity and innovation, and emphasized the importance of thinking “outside the box” in achieving growth.

The unusual format of the event drew interest from the attendees who remarked on it.

“It is impressive to learn how far Herald Corp. has come in seeing the company branch out to its ‘new life style’ businesses,” Caferino Valdez, Paraguay’s Ambassador to Korea and the acting dean of the diplomatic corps, said, adding that it is “exciting to see the role of design in re-imagining the company.”

Valdez also singled out the Herald’s expansion into the organic food industry, and its potential link to his country saying that Paraguay was one of the world’s leading producer of organic agricultural products.

“It is a nice idea, a jubilee like this, because Herald Corp. deviated from the usual anniversary rituals and organized an event that is not just for entertainment,” Serbian Ambassador to Korea Slobodan Marinkovic said.

“Such a design forum has important meaning for our everyday lives.”

The Korea Herald’s 60th anniversary lectures were also met with positive reception from the business community.

Lee Hee-ju, Korea Investment and Securities Co.’s executive director of public relations, said that he experienced an “unexpected twist of imagination,” while Park Seo-won described the event as “extremely intriguing.” Park is an award-winning advertisement creator and the chief executive of the advertising firm Big Ant International, who also took part in last year’s Herald Design Forum as a speaker. 



“This event showed a very unusual and creative side of the Herald,” Min Young-chang, KDB Daewoo Securities’ executive managing director, said.

“People nowadays are stripped of creative thinking, I was greatly inspired by what the Herald showed us today.” 



By Choi He-suk

(cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)