Graphic #21 - Archive Monthly DESIGN 1976-2011

#21 Archive Monthly DESIGN 1976-2011
This issue of GRAPHIC spotlights content from the 400 issues of the monthly journal DESIGN published since its launch in 1976, a year that came at the very heart of the South Korean industrialization drive in the 1970s. (Text: Korean only)

EDITORIAL
This issue of GRAPHIC spotlights content from the 400 issues of the monthly journal DESIGN published since its launch in 1976, a year that came at the very heart of the South Korean industrialization drive in the 1970s.

It could therefore be described as a condensed report on the situation in Korean design as unflaggingly recorded by DESIGN over the 35 years from 1976 to 2011. This is also the very essence of DESIGN.

Today’s information is tomorrow’s history. That is the nature of the magazine medium as witness: for each new edition, its makers work quickly to find and capture the most recent developments. There doesn’t seem to be any better way to describe the three-and-a-half decades of DESIGN presented in GRAPHIC this month. All of the writing, pictures, and work by designers that appear here were information then and are history today. If the word “history” seems a little grandiose, then we might substitute something like “memory” or “old information.”

The aim here is not simply to look back. The tasks faced by yesterday’s Korean design overlap with those of today, and designers still face the same concerns. Meanings both large and small light up the currents of time flowing from then till now. What things seemed unclear back then but are now either old or new? Does the critical approach adopted by that day’s revolutionary still hold up?

The issue includes a sort of scrapbook of leading figures in the Korean design industries and major texts from DESIGN. We hope the reader will dive into the past and find out whose views strike a chord, while at time same time reading critically and seeing what might serve as a spark for our design practice today. Ultimately, these are the kinds of insights we get from history.

Layering the 400 issues of DESIGN are the unending efforts of all the people who contributed to making this magazine. They are the ones who created this issue of GRAPHIC, and we would like to express our thanks to all of them.

Monthly DESIGN
Korea’s first design journal, DESIGN was launched in 1976. It began as a magazine focusing on interiors and architecture, but eventually transformed into a general design journal including every kind of creative industry from graphic and product design to fashion, advertising, photography, interior design, and crafts.
Its slogan is “Between Art & Business,” and, as this suggests, it looks at major areas of interest in design from both culture and industry perspectives, an approach that sets it apart from major design journals in other countries.
Design House, the company that grew out of DESIGN, now publishes a number of magazines and books for a general audience, including Home Living & Style. It is one of Korea’s leading media content companies, organizing exhibitions and engaging in various online efforts.
Last October, DESIGN announced the establishment of a digital library containing every issue in its 35-year run.