[WEEKENDER] Searching for 'Koreanness' that can inspire global citizens
20 January, 2018
![[WEEKENDER] Searching for 'Koreanness' that can inspire global citizens](https://nextnews24.com/public/uploads/news/1516425848.jpg)
Industrial designer Lee Suk-woo poses at his office in Seogyo-dong, western Seoul, Tuesday. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
The Olympic medal is a symbol of many things. For athletes, it means years of hard work paid off, and it is also a symbol that will be remembered throughout Olympic history.
To boost the host country's image, organizers of each Olympic Games devote their efforts to designing original-looking medals. This also applies to Korea's PyeongChang Winter Olympics organizers as they want their medals to reflect the country's culture and history.
Since their introduction to the world last September, the PyeongChang medals have been well-received for their Korean spin. Designed by local industrial designer Lee Suk-woo, the gold, silver and bronze medals feature consonants of the Korean alphabet, Hangeul.
While designing the PyeongChang medals, the first priority Lee considered was that the Olympic medal should reflect both global and local issues.
"I think the Olympic medal should be able to share issues both global and local," Lee told The Korea Times at his office in western Seoul, Tuesday. "When it comes to global issues, the medal is supposed to share the Olympic spirit of peace for humanity. And with a local issue, there should be something Korean in it."
While brainstorming for design ideas, Lee had agonized over what represents Korean culture the most.
"When people talk about the real Korean thing, many people usually come out with things from traditional Korean culture such as traditional Korean mask dance or traditional Korean food," he said.
"I think the culture we are currently experiencing is the most Korean thing. For instance, I've never lived in a traditional Korean house in my entire life. I have only lived in apartments. To me, living in an apartment complex is the most Korean thing I see."
In that sense, Lee infused Hangeul into the medal because the Korean alphabet is the foundation of Korean culture.
"Hangeul is a bridge between Korea's past and present. It is also the DNA of us. In that context, I focused on how to connect our DNA to the Olympics," Lee said.
Each Olympic medal is 92.5 millimeters wide, 109 millimeters long and between 4.4 and 9.42 millimeters thick. The gold medal weighs 586 grams, the silver 580 grams and the bronze 493 grams.
The front side of the medal features the traditional Olympic rings and on the reverse side has engraved the words "PyeongChang 2018" and its emblem.
The highlight of the medal on the outer edge are Hangeul consonants inscribed in bas relief. The medal is also inspired by the texture of tree trunks with the front and back bearing dynamic diagonal lines.
The lanyard from which the medal hangs is another important part of the design. The ribbon has snowflake patterns embroidered on "gapsa," a traditional Korean fabric used to make "hanbok," the traditional Korean costume.
While medals are inspired by Hangeul and the lanyard from hanbok, the curved pattern of the wooden medal holder is from traditional Korean architecture.
Lee was asked to design the PyeongChang medals in April 2016, which took about six months to complete.
"When I was requested to design the medals, I didn't hesitate to accept the offer as it is a great honor for me," Lee said.
In his initial design process, Lee had about 10 ideas for the Olympic medal and shortened the list to five, then shortened it again to two.
"While designing the medal, I kept receiving feedback from the organizers and two themes for the final version began standing out. They were Hangeul and the mountain scenes of PyeongChang.
"After talking with the organizers, we decided to use Hangeul as we all agreed to translate Hangeul's 2D appearance to a 3D structure," Lee said, adding International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials also liked the scheme.
After deciding on the main theme of the medal, the design process progressed quite fast. When asked about the positive responses to the Olympic medal, Lee said he was very cautious when unveiling the medal last year but was also gratified by the reactions.
"Public design is very dangerous work for us as it must be successful. Failure cannot be tolerated in such a big event like this so I had a great feeling of responsibility," Lee said.
"Most important of all, I wanted the Olympic medal to represent the hard work of the athletes and I am pretty satisfied with the finished product. I received warm comments that it was a good experimental move to incorporate Hangeul into the design of the medal," Lee said.
Lee has been managing his design company, SWNA. The prominent designer has designed a wide range of innovative and award-winning products ranging from smartphone to apartment complex designs.
"When explaining my job, I used to say I design things from a small needle to a spaceship because the meaning of industrial design is very broad," Lee said.
When asked about his design philosophy, Lee said he tries to "keep its originality intact."
"When we think about the standard look of an SUV or a wristwatch, most of us recall Land Rover cars or Rolex watches and it is because people think these products have more originality than others. I also pursue designing a product that is moderate but beautiful in its design," he said.
"I don't expect all the people will respond with the images of Korea on the medal, I only hope people will say it looks unique and great. That's enough for me."
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