London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Expo visit: Korean design and cultural contents at KBEE

The Korea Brand and Entertainment Expo which coincided with President Park’s State Visit showcased contemporary Korean media art, K-pop, Korea’s premier garden designer and more.

Also featured were key Korean designers:

  • Kim Young-se (김영세) of Innodesign, whose designs reference the sleek black parallel lines of the trigrams in South Korea’s national flag, or the elegant curves of the yin-yang symbol at its centre. (www.innodesign.com)
  • UK-based designer Choi Min-kyu and his famous folding plug
  • Jewellery designer Park Eun-sook, whose work is based on the hangul alphabet
  • Kim Been’s dancheong-inspired work, and some of her hanji accessories
  • Fashion and accessories from RE:CODE, whose manufacturing philosophy is to create desirable products out of materials that are surplus from the military or industrial processes (www.re-code.co.kr)

For the younger audience, there were stalls which exhibited the many Korean animation characters such as Pucca and Pororo which prove so popular outside of Korea.

And tucked away in a little-visited part of the venue were some cosmetics and other fashion companies, one of the less-heralded aspects of the Korean export wave:

Cosmetics and other exporters show the variety of Korean innovation
Cosmetics and other exporters show the variety of Korean innovation

The Expo was organised and promoted by KOTRA.

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