Designer
In general, a designer refers to a planner, originator, and proposer. It is a person who executes the entire course of planning, structuring, and organizing to realize unique tangible or intangible ideas or thinking.

There are many designers in the world. There is a hair designer in a beauty salon and fashion designer in a fashion show, besides many designer types. The designer that we are going to meet this time is alumnus Seong-won Choi who will design an aircraft from now on after his decision to shift his career from Philips to the aviation industry (Industrial design, 93). Let’s hear about his story.

Q. Please tell us about your current work.
Currently, I am working as a lead designer in the Audio and Video Multimedia Department in Philips, Hong Kong. I am in charge of large-scale audio lineup for Central and South America and the retro-style product line in Philips. I have worked in the home appliance industry for more than 11 years and through Seattle in the U.S., I plan to work in the aviation industry.

Q. From when did you develop an interest in ‘design’?
I had been very interested in airplanes or cars since I was young. Especially, I was interested in the shapes of cars and airplanes. For example, I remembered exactly the shape of an airplane that I was on when I was 5-6 years old. Although I didn’t know the name of the aircraft type, now I know that plane was 737-200. I started thinking of becoming a car designer when I was in middle school and eventually, I entered the Department of Industrial Design in Kookmin University. As soon as I entered the university, I joined in ‘Form,’ a small design automobile group within the Department of Industrial Design and worked there. Of course, I am now working as a product designer but I am looking forward to joining the aviation industry in the near future.

Q. Is there any unforgettable product among the products that you designed?
There are three unforgettable products. The most unforgettable product is Samsung ‘minicet multi-function camera’ that was my first mass-produced item. When I made this product, I had a hard time visiting many Japanese businesses to figure out the production method for the best representation of my design. Fortunately, all of my hard work paid off and there was fruitful result. I won numerous awards including IF, Red Dot Award, Japan Good Design Award, and ‘Good Design Award’ that was given in Korea. Thus, it is such a meaningful and unforgettable design.

I also remember a product called ‘Soundsphere Speaker Range’ that I exclusively designed while working in Philips. It was a project that commercialized a new speaker concept developed by the Sound Lab of Philips, and I was worried as it looked very different from the conventional speakers. Since it was a new challenge, this item is more meaningful and became unforgettable. Of course, it was eventually awarded with various design awards and was highly praised so this is as good as it gets.

Q. Is there any course in school (undergraduate and graduate) that helped your career?
I remember many courses but Automobile Design (course for junior) that I had awaited seemed to help me a lot in my career. Due to the course characteristics, the aspects of brainstorming, ideation, modeling, and presentation were like that of the actual design process so it helped me the most.

Q. You decided to switch your career from Philips to an aviation business. Why did you make such decision?
Since I was young, I always wanted to do transportation design. But another reason is that I wanted to take on a new challenge. The recent design trend involves wider screen as well as importance of UI (information loaded on the screen to execute a certain function by a user) rather than the exterior design or final look of a product. Personally, I prefer to create cool shapes. In line with this, it is more important for transportation means like airplanes, cars, and ships to have an attractive design rather than UI. Such factor also served as a reason for me to decide my career change.

Q. What do you design in an airplane?
The parts that demand design in an airplane are the interior. Including business seats and couch seats that are competitively advertised by aviation companies, all parts of the interior require design like the wall and compartment areas. In addition, the designer’s ability is used for the painting of the airplane exterior.

Q. It seems to require engineering knowledge including mechanical elements and materials for the design of electronic devices or airplanes. If design requires such knowledge, how do you manage? Have you studied such areas?
A designer for product or aviation design does not work alone. For a project, it requires marketing including designers, engineers, and sometimes an outsourced business as a team. As I have worked for a long period of time, I learned a lot of things while obtaining extensive knowledge on mechanical elements. When a designer and engineer discuss things in general, it causes ideological conflicts as the designer wants cool and experimental outcome while the engineer wants safe and accident-free outcome. In case of Philips, the engineer is outsourced and between the internal designer and outsourced business, there is a lead engineer in Philips. This lead engineer is like the right arm to me. The outsourced business tries to avoid a new challenge by giving some reasons for taking the safe way that has already worked. At that time, the lead engineer persuades the outsourced business with professional knowledge for the maximum reflection of design. Since managing such situation is quite difficult without having professional knowledge, the relationship between engineers and designers is very important.

Q. What would be the percentage taken by design and planning for the flight of an aircraft?
Basically, much of the design work related to aircraft is about the interior and exterior color that is the responsibility of a graphic designer. However, there are many limitations in this aspect. For example, there is a limited number of materials to be used. First of all, materials should be lightweight. Also, materials should be carefully chosen as there may be hazardous gas in case of fire. There are limitations for the exterior color and for example, most aviation businesses do not use black because black is heavier compared to other colors. Since an aircraft pays a certain fee to an airport based on the weight of its landing to the airport, it is said that more cost is incurred in case of using the color black.

Recently, Air New Zealand and some other airlines try black to differentiate their airplanes from the competitors, despite incurring more airport expense. For exterior shape, priority is given to functional aspect and engineers add refined details to aircraft structure. Although a designer cannot change the wing direction or main shape, such can be trimmed. For example, the aircrafts of former Soviet Union were mainly oriented by functional aspect so they looked rough. On the other hand, American or European private aircrafts look sleek. Such difference can be managed by a designer. Also recently, identity is stressed in an aircraft like other products or vehicles and such identity can be seen in the window shape of ‘airbus.’ The endmost window is in pentagonal shape and it reflects the identity of ‘airbus.’ Likewise, all aircrafts of airbus have such window shape.

Q. Is there any advice that you want to share with your juniors in Kookmin University?
What I like to say is that I encourage them to travel a lot, whether it is Korea or overseas countries. And if you visit Hong Kong, do not only shop around but also enjoy the nature. In Hong Kong, many places are restricted for development so there are many areas with pristine nature. I also learned to enjoy nature with my colleagues by riding a bicycle to feel the natural beauty of Hong Kong. Simply put, it is important to see many things and learn from the things you have seen.

Q. What is your goal and plan for the future?
I think there will be great developments in the aviation industry in Asia, especially, in the private aircraft business. Since the field of product design is saturated, price competition is expected to be fiercer. Aside from China, Japan is also joining in the private aircraft business and even Russia is producing an aircraft like ‘airbus’ or ‘Boeing’ transcending its former style practiced during the days of the Soviet Union. Especially, private aircraft business is expected to be more important as a means of transport especially in countries such as China, Indonesia, and Philippines that have many islands. I love to design and now I am doing what I love to do. Maybe, I will keep doing this job in the future as well. I realized my dreams but to dream a new one, I will take on the aviation industry probably for the next 10 years.

People dream even from a younger age and each one has something he/she wants to do. However, some dreams are lowered by crashing into reality and these are getting lower at each crash. Nevertheless, there are successful people who accomplish something impossible and live their lives while feeling satisfied. Through the interview with Seung-won Choi, we understood the unique career of ‘product designer’ and ‘aviation designer.’ The life of Mr. Choi who realized his dreams amidst the challenges in search for a new dream is stimulating us. Are you expecting a job? Don’t you know what to do in the future? If so, ask yourself the following question.

‘What is your favorite thing to do?’