Kate's e-Portfolio

My final project is comparing the company in Korea and Canada. I chose MACcosmetics company which headquarter is in Canada.

From this project, I found some similarities and differences between those 2 companies. The similarities are they sell same products, provide same service such as SNS (Social Network Service) and create same brand image. But they are selling products depending on the culture. Canada is multi-culture so there are various colors on the cosmetic products. On the other hand, Korea is based on more one-culture so there are overwhelmingly typically popular colors relatively to Canada. But I think these days Korea has been changed to multi-culture and there are many different colors of skin. Therefore we also have to consider the needs of various colors on cosmetic products.We also need to cover not only what they sell but also other things related to the products such as fashion which could be seen in MAC Canada SNS. And I could see how differently the store is located according to the context an culture in the country.

In the future we, Korean, might have to sell dark foundation. We need to think about the globalization as soon as possible. If I were in interview with a employer and had to explain experience about Canadian company, I would say those above things and especially tell them to prepare globalization practically because Korea has changed multicultured and will change consistently.

 I didn’t know what I would do after graduating my school so that is why I decided to come here and think about my future. Actually I had a picture of my future for the long term. Even though I had that picture, I was not sure of what I will do for the next step because I thought design is requiring harder works comparing with the wages. And getting into a big company is in high competition nowadays in Korea.  But what I have realized is I am really used to be in design field rather than any other kind of industry and I like design. So I made up my mind for sure to keep being involved in a design industry which is I think quite interesting and excting for me.

 Also here in Canada, I have learned about branding and business through GCCP course. I was interested in branding especially the images of the brands. Before here I had studied branding as a designer for one semester and I was really got into it. I think there must be what I can do as a designer for branding in big company. For branding the company needs to create the image of their brand and manufacture the products according to this image. I think designers are good at seeing the differences between other brands and creating the images of the brands.

 Now I am going to try to be a designer in a brand management after graduating my university. And after 2 or 3 years of working in the industry, I will study abroad for getting more professional about design. And If it is possible I will try to be a teacher in the university as well. Above is all I expect for my future. Iwill try to do my best. 

 During the time studying english in UBC ELI, I went to the festival in granvile island. It was the first time I went to granvile island which has been a great place for artists. There are many kinds of artistic shops such as a big toy shop for kids, hand made crafts shops and paintings shops. I enjoyed looking around that stores and seeing good crafts. One store I found there’s a lot of fine and adorable products was runned by a husband and his wife. They have lived doing what they want to do with someone who they love even though the store is small and not much popular. I thought it must have been romantic and awsome!

 After looking around, I saw a play in a theater. The play was screen shadow play which was well made and good quality. The stuffs they used on the screen are all made of recycled plastic material such as vinyl and a plastic bottle. It was very impressive for me to see all the stuffs are plastic! I couldn’t imagine that. The story is about environment in globe as well. Realistic and vivid sounds, good views and little funny things in the story..all things are fantastic.  

 I got impressed at the place because I didn’t know that granvile island was where artists live and do their works. And it has been working well! I know some places like granvile island in Korea but in my opinion it has not been runned very well even though the government supports artists in some ways. I think not only Korea goverment has to support artists but also artists themselves have to try to revitalize their industry by continuing their jobs not relying on support from big organizations.

 I enjoyed exploring granvile island very much. That was one of the unforgettable experiences in Vancouver. I want to visit granvile island  again with my friends or by myself.

 This is the article about the interior design of one company in Korea. The design in the company has been issued among many people in this field because it is something new that focuses on interactive communication whithin workers and this is also eco-design. 

 

‘Green factory’ is the first headquarters building of korea’s leading internet company,NHN. The primary focus of the 26-storey complex is to encourage and facilitate communication through the interior design and layout. A system of green vertical louvers change the face of the building throughout the day as it shifts to capture natural daylight.

In order to promote a healthy and fun workstyle, attention was paid to the details: instead of drab, concrete emergency stairs, the staircases are interactive (such as stretching exercises) or calming (with forest decal). The top floor is reserved for the community cafe, offering sweeping views of the gwangkyo bridge. Off to the side of the cafe is a small playground for informal meetings. The office spaces are divided into ‘hives’ or plazas that act as focal points for each floor’s work area with meeting rooms, canteens, bulletin boards, mailboxes, and tables for meetings or negotiation.

 

 As you can see, green factory is designed under consideration of communication. I was taught by the chief designer of green factory for one semester in my university. And I visited the company and explored the interior details in the company which was a great opportunity to see good practical example of  interior. The most impressive thing was there are 4 sounds to distinguish which area you parked your car. Sound is very easy to remember so the designer used sounds to design. Not only some example in this article  but also there are many detailed and small things to make workers feel comfortable and easy to communicate each other. For example, there are recycled table on which game board is drawn in cafe space where people can play board game together. I think this is good for people to play and it is considered environment.

 These days, the trend of design is how to make people communicate very well rather than having fancy design. At the same time we should think about environment of the earth. Eco-design is important as well. I think a designer has a duty to think about how to give better lifes to people considering communication or environment.  

http://www.designboom.com/architecture/nhn-green-factory/

Let me introduce myself. I am majoring in Interior Design from HongIk University. Actually My original major was architecture. But I changed my major to Interior Design because I was thinking of exhibition designer as my future job which is more related to Interior design. More over, it was easy for the students whose major is architecture to change their major to Interior design because many interior works are similar to architecture and the policies in the architecture department allow students to change their major with permission from their professor.

When I changed my major, it didn’t seem that anything was not changed. I thought I learned same things about architecture at the first time. And it was found half was right and the other half was wrong. Generally Interior Design study in my university was about more architecture than just decoration of the room, such as study of building system, comprehension about structure of building and design of facade. But I also learned about more detailed subjects such as furniture design, exhibition design, and interior materials.  For 3 years, I can say I have been studying architecture especially about interior design which is including more detailed things inside the building. In addition I studied skills for design such as computer skills and hand drawings. Those things I learned from my major are very attractive to me and I have felt interested in those design of subjects.

I devoted a lot of effort to do my assignments for which I think I did my best. Every semester I was in charge of finishing one design project. It requires a lot of works such as researching data, fixing the concept of the design logically, studying models and final presentation. At that time when I was studying my major, I disliked it because I had to do lots of things for my work and almost every twice a week I stayed all night to do my project even though I like design and creative thinking in my major. To make the work great almost design major students need significant hours. Sometimes 24 hours for a day are not enough for us. We can not help staying nights in order to make a good result. So the fact that I had to cover lots of works and stay all night until the deadline of my work makes me frustrated when I think of my future job and what I will do as interior designer. Being as interior designer means I have to stay all night to make my work successful.

But after coming here in Canada I realized that I missed the days I spent doing the assignment and even the nights I stayed. I like doing a creative work and I am used to think according to what I learned. I was thinking of getting a job not relative to my major before I came in Canada. But now I decided to keep going with my major in a big company or an organization because when I work in GCCP with other people I realized that what I learned would be helpful for business part as well. In addition, I can do well on the design part which I spent 3 years studying. Keeping my major at work is the decision for the next step in Korea.

I’m in GCCP in UBC. I am very happy to be here.