Long-established businesses, family businesses run for generations

Gyeongsangbuk-do(Governor Kim Kwan-Yong) and KIU(President Chung Hyun-Tae) rolled up their sleeves to support long-established businesses in Gyeongbuk Province.

This morning (November 29th) an opening ceremony of ‘Young people’s support group for long-established businesses’ was held in the main conference room of KIU. Twelve group members and the group leader, Kim Dae-Sung who is a professor of design at KIU, received a letter of appointment from Kim Nam-Il, director of Job Service, on behalf of Governor Kim Kwan-Yong, and announced the project’s launch.

For the first time in the country, Gyeongsangbuk-do launched a project in which young designers, in a specially designed caravan, will search for long-established businesses throughout the province. They will provide a design service such as book publishing and image recording, marketing, environmental improvement, and content development.

The researchers who majored in Photography and Design at KIU will publish a storytelling book about the history of the long-established businesses. Also, they will create and install sculptures, symbolizing family tradition which lasted for a long time in one place. They will help them with logo branding, product content development, sign design, and environmental improvement as well.

After visiting long-established local businesses and long-lived service companies to evaluate the suitability and effectiveness of their design services, the group will select ten businesses.

It is expected that young people will learn from those long-established businesses about how to focus on one field for a lifetime and to have artisan spirit. Also, the businesses, with the help of young people, can have an opportunity to take off as the companies possess more than 100 years of history.

The caravan is remodeled as a state-of-the-art workroom which is equipped with many tools such as: a computer for designing and product manufacturing, a 3D printer, a cutting plotter, etc.

“As the project for supporting long-established, local businesses is first done by Gyoengsangbuk-do, even the Seoul Metropolitan Government benchmarks it,” said Kim Nam-Il, director of Job Service. “We expect that young people in Gyeongbuk Province will provide long-established businesses with practical help and contribute to reviving the local economy.”

Hong Jae-Pyo, the university’s director of industry-university cooperation, encouraged the young designers, saying “New storytelling is possible by infusing young designers’ imagination and creativity into long-established businesses’ tradition and artisan spirit, and this will hopefully boost the economy and create more jobs.”

“We will provode impressive designs to long-established businesses,” support group leader, Professor Kim Dae-Sung, expressed a short resolution.