Ahn Sang-Soo to receive Icograda Education Award

Montreal (Canada) - Prof. Ahn Sang-Soo will be the recipient of the 2009 Icograda Education Award, to be presented on 26 October, during the first day of the International Conference at Xin: Icograda World Design Congress 2009 in Beijing, China.
Montreal (Canada) - Prof. Ahn Sang-Soo will be the recipient of the 2009 Icograda Education Award, to be presented on 26 October, during the first day of the International Conference at Xin: Icograda World Design Congress 2009 in Beijing, China.

25.08.2009 News

Montreal (Canada) - Prof. ,  Head of the School of Graphic Design at Hongik University's College of Fine Arts, will be the recipient of the 2009 Icograda Education Award. Prof. Ahn was nominated by the Visual Information Design Association of Korea (VIDAK) and selected by the Icograda Executive Board from nominations received. The award will be presented on 26 October, during the first day of the International Conference at in Beijing, China.

Ahn Sang-Soo has long been one of the most influential designers in East Asia. His typographical development work in his native Korea has almost made him a household name. He can justifiably claim to have master-minded and supervised a revolutionary transition of the traditional Hangul, the Korean alphabet, into a functional medium for today, with all its digital demands and interpretations.??

Born in Chungju in 1952, he has enjoyed a long career as a designer and educator. A graduate of Seoul's Hongik University, his early works in the industry served to fire his enthusiasm for visual communication across many disciplines. He has fifteen books on design-related subjects to his credit and copious essays and papers. He is also responsible for translating seminal works on typography by Jan Tschichold and Emil Ruder. He holds a number of awards and prizes including a commendation by the Korean Language Academy for meritorious contribution to the advancement of Hangul (he has four major Korean fonts to his credit). As early as 1983, he was selected as Designer of the Year by Design magazine. His list of design achievements, both in Korea and abroad, includes the design and production of many major international exhibitions and over forty shows in which his work has featured. He regularly travels abroad to lecture on his projects and to promote Asian design developments and ideas.??

From 1997 to 2001, Ahn served as an Icograda Vice President. During this period, he was responsible for establishing a number of international workshops and served on several International Competition juries. In October 2000, he chaired Icograda's Millennium Congress ''.

The Icograda Education Manifesto, a key legacy of Oullim, remains a core document that defines Icograda's position on design education. The manifesto advocates that design education must be a learning-centred environment, enabling students to develop their potential in and beyond academic programs.

Prof. Min Wang, Icograda Vice President, Dean at the and chair of the local planning committee for Xin: Icograda World Design Congress 2009 noted the significance of recognising Prof. Ahn in Beijing. He spent a year as visiting Professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2003. In addition, the Beijing Congress will mark the beginning of the 10 anniversary celebrations of the Education manifesto.

Created in 2007, the Icograda Education Award is presented to an educator from a member of the Icograda Education Network, in recognition of outstanding innovation or achievement in design education. Prof. Hazel Gamec (, New Zealand) received the inaugural award at the Icograda World Design Congress 2007 in La Habana, Cuba.

Links


Education Manifesto (PDF - 463KB)
Egodesign article on Ahn Sang-Soo




For more information on the Education Award, please contact

Fareed Ramezani
Icograda Membership and Communications Manager
T: +1 514 448 4949 x222
E: framezani@icograda.org
Montreal (Canada) - Prof. Ahn Sang-Soo will be the recipient of the 2009 Icograda Education Award, to be presented on 26 October, during the first day of the International Conference at Xin: Icograda World Design Congress 2009 in Beijing, China.
Montreal (Canada) - Prof. Ahn Sang-Soo will be the recipient of the 2009 Icograda Education Award, to be presented on 26 October, during the first day of the International Conference at Xin: Icograda World Design Congress 2009 in Beijing, China.

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