The Founding and Dissolution of the Korean Society of Visual Design (KSVD): Process and Background, 1972–1993; [한국시각디자인협회(KSVD)의 창립과 해산: 과정 및 배경, 1972~1993]

초록

Background Founded in 1972, the Korean Society of Visual Design (KSVD) became the leading organization in the field of graphic design and was dissolved in 1993. The sudden dissolution of KSVD caused a great shock to the design community at the time. This study aims to deeply analyze the founding process, core activities, and the reasons and background behind the dissolution of KSVD. Methods This study covers the period from 1972, when KSVD was founded, to 1993, when it was dissolved. The starting point of this research was participation in the KSVD 50th-anniversary exhibition and seminar held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in 2022. Additional materials related to KSVD were then investigated. To understand the design context of the time, newspapers, magazines, and books were referenced, and interviews and writings of past presidents were compared and analyzed. Results KSVD was established in the early 1970s, an era of strong government-led design initiatives, and played a central role in the field of graphic design. However, in the early 1990s, KSVD decided to dissolve in order to adapt to the changing design environment. The main reasons for the dissolution include the following three factors: first, the social changes both domestically and internationally in the early 1990s; second, the need to establish a new relationship with the Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP); and third, the operational difficulties faced by the association and the weakening of leadership. Conclusions The founding and dissolution of KSVD are closely linked to the shifts in design environments from the 1970s to the early 1990s. In particular, the dissolution of KSVD in 1993 revealed the need to address its outdated organizational system and reconsider its social role, leading to a broad discussion. Through this process, in 1994, the Visual Information Design Association of Korea (VIDAK) was founded as a result of collaboration among several design organizations, overcoming the limitations of previous associations and establishing an integrated design organization that came to represent the field of graphic design. A detailed examination of the process and background of KSVD’s founding and dissolution, along with its connection to the establishment of VIDAK, will provide an opportunity to reflect on the evolution of the role and status of design associations in the history of Korean graphic design. Copyright: This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted educational and non-commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited.

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