'Design doesn't have to be pretty to be lovely'
Kim Bong-jin, CEO of Woowa Brothers, speaks during a design seminar held as part of the Seoul Design Festival Dec. 8-11. / Courtesy of Prain
By Yun Suh-young
"Does design have to be pretty?" Kim Bong-jin, CEO of Woowa Brothers, asked a crowd of designers and design students during a lecture at the Seoul Design Festival that ended last week.
"No, but it can still be lovely," he said, referring to his own brand, "Delivery Nation," which is representative of Woowa Brothers. Delivery Nation was revolutionary when it first came out in 2012, completely changing the dynamics of the delivery applications industry with just a simple click on an app. Not only was the service sensational, but also its brand image was far from pretty. In fact, it positioned itself as an "unpretty" weird brand that comes up with wacky ideas and marketing that make people smile. Its unique font also gained many fans.
Kim said being Baemin (the short form of what people call the Delivery Nation), was equivalent to being oneself.
"When you start becoming aware of the people around you, you start designing like them. It is when you do unfamiliar and strange designs that you start finding yourself," he said.
"It's important to retain originality. Just like Apple retains its brand image no matter how many fake brands copy their brand, you shouldn't change your brand identity out of fear of market competition or because of copycats. Branding is intentional and it requires consistent behavior."
But it wasn't easy to win the hearts of many at first with its unusual design that startled customers in the beginning.
"When people saw it for the first time, they thought, 'What is this?' It was weird and unfamiliar. But it was interesting and new. As they saw it again and again, they grew an affinity toward the brand and now we have become the first company in Korea to have a fan club!" said Kim.
"It's important to keep exposing your brand to the public. That's why we kept printing our weird fonts with simple messages on posters. It wasn't even an ad, but we made it like an ad to expose our brand identity."
Public persuasion didn't end there. It also required "force."
"You need to coerce your brand to the public on top of exposure," he said in a funny way which drew laughter from the audience.
"I don't think any brand in Korea has designed even the top cover of their delivery cars. We did, because we wanted people on the higher floors to look down and see our wacky catchphrase.
"We design everything from kimchi to fashion, and we even consult other brands. Even the public designs our brand. Their ideas are incorporated into our brand."
Design is the most powerful tool given to humans, said Kim, who himself is a designer-turned CEO. He was a designer at Naver, Korea’s largest internet portal, and has worked at a design agency with clients such as Nike and Hyundai Card, prior to opening his own company in 2011.
"People think design is an activity confined to designers, but no, everyone can be a designer. Design is not an added value but a fundamental value. It's a badge that reflects the persona of a person's lifestyle."
To trigger further creativity in his employees, Kim's company intentionally gives them limitations.
"When we design, we always encounter limitations such as budget, human resources and time. To break that requires creativity, because, in fact, limitations spark creativity. So we decided to intentionally create limitations to foster creativity in our staff."