Seongyong Lee

Product Design - Shortlisted 2012

Seongyong began his design journey in Seoul, Korea where he worked on academic design and research projects with global industry giants like Samsung and Hyundi Motors. He went on to work as an intern with design firms in Seoul, New York and London before embarking on an MA in Design Products at the Royal College of Art, where he was awarded an international student bursary.

For three consecutive years Seongyong was recognised in Korea as a New Generation Design Leader, and has since won many awards for his work in Germany, Japan, the UK and the United States.

Among Seongyong's successes is a design project called Plytube, which is a new way of creating wooden tubing for use in manufacturing furniture. His Plytube stool and experiments are now part of the permanent collection at the Design Museum in London and have also been shown at the Saatchi Gallery, Cologne Furniture Fair and the Design Museum, where his work was nominated for Design of the Year in 2011.

Seongyong feels strongly that his designs should be thoroughly considered, yet outwardly simple, good to look at and intuitive to use. To him the perfect design is something that is beautiful, long lasting, practical and with a perfect structure. He values the power of handcrafting but understands the wisdom of mass production.

Seongyong's vision now is to take the success of Plytube and apply it the creation of a range of family furniture. “I can’t wait to show my work with this new material.”