The Seoul Design Competition provides an opportunity for designers and idea generators to compete with their original ideas, aiming to discover eco-friendly, future-orientated, and creative design solutions to make a better future life for citizens. It welcomes applications from people worldwide with no qualification restrictions.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government calls for a wide variety of ideas with an ambition to turn Seoul into an "attractive global city" and "soft city".

Goals

The main goals of the competition are:

1. To propose creative design alternatives to make a better future life for citizens.
2. To find and promote talented designers and idea generators at international levels.
3. To raise citizens' awareness of design by showcasing innovative design solutions.

Theme

Interflow and consilience

Breaking away from a disciplinary boundary, the competition welcomes innovative ideas conceived from multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural backgrounds and between different industries, as well as encourages interflow, fusion and consilience in producing and manufacturing processes, aiming to discover a new promising potential and create inventive ideas.

• Interflow - to flow into each other
• Consilience - the unity of knowledge
• Fusion - the merging of different elements into a union

Keywords - low carbon, eco-friendliness, natural energy.

Categories

There is no limitation in category, but multidisciplinary approaches to the definition of design solution are recommended.

Eligibility

No restrictions and entry is free.

Prizes

Golden Haechi Prize - USD 5,000 (1 final winner)
Silver Haechi Prize - USD 2,500 (2 final winners)
Bronze Haechi Prize - USD 1,500 (3 final winners)
Iron Haechi* Prize - USD 1,000 (Max. 10 final winners)
Honorable mentions - Certificate and catalouge (number to be determined)
People's choice award - Certificate and catalouge (5 final winners)

*The Heachi is the symbol of Seoul, a legendary animal known as the one to guard Seoul.

All winners will be granted a certificate in the name of the mayor of Seoul.

Submission proceedure

More information available via the website including application criteria and competition rules: http://sdo.seoul.go.kr

Jury

The jury is composed of leading design experts from home and abroad.
Names of the jury members will be revealed shortly at http://sdo.seoul.go.kr

Judging criteria

The judging will be based on the criteria including creativity, sustainability, innovative concept, user experience, feasibility, appropriateness to the theme, and aesthetics.

Judging procedure

There are three phases to the judging procedure. The 1st and 2nd round of judging will be conducted online, while the final judging will be performed on site in October 2009.

Phase 1
The first online judging stage - all entries will be reviewed and accessed by the international jury.

Phase 2
The second online judging stage - entries selected in the first round of judging are eligible.

Selected entrants will be asked to submit their works in the manner specified in the second judging stage.

Jurors' comments on selected entries will delivered to the entrants, allowing them to make improvements to their designs for the next judging stage.

Phase 3
The third on-site judging stage - shortlisted entries will be reviewed.

Shortlisted entries will be on display at Jamsil Sports Complex during the Seoul Design Olympiad event in October 2009, among which final winners will be decided by the evaluation of the professional jury and citizens.

Shortlisted entrants will be asked to submit their works in the manner specified in the third round of judging.

The competition organizer will use JPG formatted images submitted to the third round of judging in making presentation boards, while video files at AVI format will be played on screen during the exhibition.

Final winners will be announced on the Seoul Design Olympiad 2009 homepage.

Competition intellectual property

Entrants reserve the copyright in all entry materials. The Seoul Metropolitan Government has the right to use the images or other materials of selected entries for archiving or public relations purposes, not for any commercial use.

To find out more, visit the official event website Exhibition page.

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For more information, please contact:

Ms. Jenny RYU
Seoul Design Foundation, Seoul Metropolitan Government
9F, MIES Blgd., 21-1 Seosomun-dong, jung-gu
Seoul 100-813
South Korea
t: +82 2 3705 0014
f: +82 2 3705 0085
e:
w: http://sdo.seoul.go.kr