There is a long way to go for Korea to become a global design power house if it continues to offer little recognition to designers and doesn’t support them in developing their creative thinking, foreign design professors teaching in Korea said.

At a graduation show of the master’s degree students at the International Design School for Advanced Studies, a school which fills half of its teaching staff with foreign professors, the design professors from abroad stressed that Korea needs to support young designers to grow and to appreciate their creative ideas.

“I met a lot of young designers here in Korea, but when they graduate from schools, they disappear,” said Andrea Dichiara, an Italian professor at IDAS of Hongik University, who has been teaching graduate design students for seven years. 

“It’s the companies and authorities who don’t believe in younger people and their creativity. They should let them express their creativity,” Dichiara said.

The IDAS is the first professional graduate school of industrial design, established by the Ministry of Industry and Energy in 1996. It offers master’s degree programs in three majors ― product design, digital media design and design management.

Dichiara further pointed out that Korea’s modern design fails to represent the Korean identity, which he found “extraordinary” in traditional celadon, ceramics and other traditional crafts.

“Korean design today has no Korean personality. The cars all look alike. Fashion doesn’t exist. Architecture doesn’t exist because people are ashamed of showing their personality and culture,” he said. “It looks like you jumped some steps in between tradition and modern.”

Another professor who wished to remain anonymous also stressed that there needs to be an improvement in how companies treat designers.

“Bosses take credit for your work and those who have no background in design make design decisions here,” he said.

Despite the grim descriptions of the design environment by their teachers, 52 students of IDAS are showing their final products and their vision for Korea’s design.

Digital Media major students are presenting mobile applications that are ready to be introduced to the market.

Jung Miri targets school children with her “Music Textbook,” an iPad application, which recognizes musical instruments and plays a video clip of a musician playing the instrument.

“I thought it will be helpful for children to have it applied to a digital textbook,” she said, demonstrating the application.

The IDAS graduate degree show is open to the public until Dec. 26 at Dongdaemun History and Culture Park Event Hall.

For more information, visit www.cocoon2012.blogspot.com.

By Lee Woo-young  (wylee@heraldcorp.com)