At the 2022 K-EYEWEAR DESIGN AWARDS, students Jeong Jin-Woon and Kim Jin-Tae from Kookmin University’s Department of Metalwork and Jewelry won the grand prize and silver prize, respectively. We spoke with the two students to congratulate them on winning their awards and heard more detailed explanations of their winning works.

▲Jeong Jin-Woon's Work

Q1. Why did you participate in the K-EYEWEAR DESIGN?
Jeong: In my art jewelry class at Kookmin University, I was assigned the task of making glasses using the shape and structure of an insect. After a friend told me about the contest, I decided to enter the artwork that I had created in that class.

Kim: I participated at the recommendation of Jung Jin-Woon, a senior who won the grand prize in this competition. All third-year students made glasses for Kookmin University’s sculpture exhibition in 2022. Jeong was a senior who was graduating soon, but after seeing my work, he encouraged me to participate in the competition, so I applied.

Q2. Can you give detailed explanations and descriptions of the designs of the works for which you won the grand and silver prizes?
Jeong: I wanted to capture the fluttering of a butterfly's wings in the glasses, so I began the design process with the aim of making it seem as if the glasses flutter whenever the wearer moves. To achieve this, I used thin metal so that the wings could move with the slightest movement of the wearer, and I wanted the rivets to be as far apart as possible so that the moving parts of the glasses would be highly visible. To make manufacturing easier, I made the folds thin. I also thought that using thin metal would make the glasses easier to fold, but if I use thin metal, the glasses would not have enough weight for wearing or design, so I stacked thin layers of metal on top of each other. When I originally conceived of the design, I thought of it as decorative eyewear and proceeded without intending to include lenses. On the advice of Professor Lee Dongchun, however, I decided that it would be good to make something that can actually help people see, so I modified the structure so that it can hold lenses, thus capturing the essence of eyeglasses. Originally, I was going to use titanium and a technique called “anodizing” to add color and capture the colorfulness of the butterfly, but I decided that such colorfulness, along with the many decorative elements, would spoil the meaning of the work, so I decided to remove the colorful elements

Kim: If we wear glasses for a long time, we get a mark on our nose. So, I wondered if there is a way to express this mark in a more interesting way. As I thought this work was similar to such mark the original was _'1 written using special characters. However, “1m” was added to the title because it was impossible to use a title with only special characters in the competition. To create a freer shape, I bent a one-meter-long piece of stainless steel
freely without cutting it. In the manufacturing process, I avoided the generation of heat, through such processes as welding, to preserve the unique tension of stainless steel, and enabled the work to actually function as a pair of glasses. I also used such tension to give the structure of the glasses stability when closed.

▲Jeong Jin-Woon

Q3. Did you have any difficulties in the design process?
Jeong: Most of the modeling is done on computer, but since I had to fold metal plate, it was difficult to calculate the warping, twisting, and stretching of the metal plate during the folding process. While modeling, the numbers kept changing as the metal plate was folded, and I tried to calculate it by considering all those variables, however, since the variables were the result of the metal’s characteristics, I was able to get the right dimensions only after trial and error by manually calculating all cases. Also, the thinner the metal, the easier it is to fold, but I felt that thin metal would have less weight for wear and design, so I used layers of thin metal
instead. When laser-cutting metal, the laser inevitably causes a loss of material, which changes depending on the laser intensity. All of these variables made it difficult to create this work.

Kim: Before designing these glasses, I made two models out of brass. When working with brass, I can just attach pieces by soldering; when welding a 1mm stainless steel rod, however, there are some limitations. So, when using the stainless steel, I applied a twisting method, which made it somewhat difficult to ensure the functionality of the glasses. This forced me to improvise the form,
as if I were drawing, which made it fun but also quite difficult. The oddly-twisted bundles of stainless steel that now fill my home are proof of that.

▲Kim Jin-Tae

Q4. We heard that you have been inspired to plan and design various objects. How long does that process usually take?
Jeong: My professor suggested it separately before the graduation exhibition. The production time was about one month, but the design took only one day, perhaps because I was able to come up with ideas quickly when making the glasses. As a result, I had sufficient time for modeling, and it seems that all the trial and error I went through resulted in a more complete work.

Kim: If it is a work that I’m designing on my own, there is no time limit, so I can work on it as long as I want. However, in the field of design, works are usually requested by people or clients, so the time for planning and design is often agreed upon in advance. For example, for the design of these glasses, I had up to the eighth week of the semester to complete the work. So it took about two months overall, and some of the production work I outsourced had to be done in a week.

▲Kim Jin-Tae's work

Q5. You did eyewear design, but is there a design in a specific field that you are interested in and researching?
Jeong: Originally, I was interested in lighting design because I thought that lighting itself is an object with a lot of power because it can be beautiful in form, but also used to create different designs using light. Even in a small space, the atmosphere can be changed with just one light. I thought that Metalwork and Jewelry Department was quite strict in terms of the aesthetics of finishing and form, but when I looked at my lighting works, I noticed that there was a big difference before and after turning on the lights. I thought that the beauty of light makes it easier to achieve the perfection and structural beauty of the work itself, and when I looked at my own works, I felt that I was not focusing on the work itself, so I wanted to improve the finish of the work in order to focus on the sculptural beauty rather than the lighting design. Now I want to create a piece with a sophisticated and professional structure, and the beauty of a finished product created by a real metalworker.

Kim: Since I am still a student, I focus on the field of design that fits the given task rather than focusing on a specific field. Other than the glasses accessories that I made this time, I am creating a variety of other works in different classes, such as tableware and art furniture. I am also trying to produce videos to promote the works I make, so I am interested in the field of video design as well.

Q6. What kind of works do you want to design in the future?
Jeong: Crafts majors usually take a career as an author, but I want to be a designer like other college of design students. Students who major in crafts know the properties and characteristics of materials better than students who major in design, and I think they can actually make products as well as do computer modeling. So I want to be a designer who works at the intersection of crafts and design.

Kim: There is a brand called “Say Touche” that makes a variety of household goods under the motto “Design on the Border Between Products and Works.” I want to do two things: make good works and products and produce content that supports the sale of such items. We would like to thank you again for your explanations of the works and your motivations for producing them, and once again, congratulations on winning the awards. We hope both of you will continue your work and become the great designers of which you dream.

Lee Yeon-Jae, Lee Wan-Jun Reporter

yjlee05481@gmail.com

mic0514@kookmin.ac.kr