Indeed, this magazine condenses the process of discovering free-flowing logic, sensing the dynamics of innovation, and responding more sensitively to human interactions, which it then communicates to readers. Through this culturally insightful portal, you can amply explore the value of Kia’s design philosophy to learn, discover, and grow, while at the same time fully enjoying a variety of experiences through meaningful and inspiring stories.

Since its launch, Kia Design Magazine has published a total of three volumes. In the past volumes, five sections—Issue, Focus, Theme, Story, and Interview—contained substantial content. In Vol.1, the perspective behind OU, which epitomizes great potential and a dynamic flair, was acutely examined in the form of a manifesto through open-minded interpretation. With Vol. 2, the magazine intensively explored the Five Pillars that support OU in order to understand it on a deeper level. This same volume gave readers the opportunity to understand the concept of OU through examples and interviews from different fields of society. Vol. 3 dealt with space identity specifically through OU realized in spaces at one of Kia’s showrooms and the Kia booth at the 2021 Gwangju Design Biennale. As a whole, these three volumes invited you to a world of inspiring thoughts organized by machinery critic Youngjune Lee, artist Dongjoo Seo, and architect Moon Hoon; interviewed intriguing people in Korea and abroad, such as the head of the Ambiguous Dance Company, a Slovak design duo called Crafting Plastics!, cognitive scientist Sangkyun Kim, Professor Jennifer Bissonnette from the Nature Lab at RISD, scenographer Shindong Yeo, and sound artist Yuri Suzuki. In addition, the magazine delivered stories of people inside the Kia Design Center.

Starting with Vol. 4 in 2022, Kia Design Magazine brought about a thorough renewal. Retaining OU as the central theme of the magazine, the website was reorganized in a Webflow format to convey numerous perspectives with easier accessibility and an intuitive design. The new sections—Issue, People, Inspiration, Now, and Interview—were put together afresh. The Issue section presents core themes related to OU using videos and text, while the People section provides you with a chance to learn more about the philosophy and dreams of those who work at the Kia Design Center by interviewing different colleagues. The Inspiration section serves as a sort of creative storage unit by collecting/uploading images of inspiring objects related to OU, and the Now section reviews art events going on around the world. Lastly, the Interview section meets with two interviewees through whom we can clearly recognize the essence of Kia’s OU philosophy—which is to say where extremes meet—thus providing readers with extraordinary inspiration. In particular, the new Kia Design Magazine aimed for greater authenticity and easy-to-understand content, especially in its use of more videos, and was laid out in terms of its design to be more readable and immersive by making use of multiple reader-friendly installations on the website.

Kia Design Magazine is for everyone working at the Kia Design Center. This year, we will deal with content in an even more open-minded way so that a greater number of people can empathize with Kia’s design philosophy. Opposites United, otherwise thought of as the creative convergence of antithetical concepts, ultimately comprehends and accepts relativeness and differences as it dreams of a world in which everyone shares creative movements while converging to move forward. We would appreciate your continued support for Kia Design Magazine in 2022 so that the magazine can play the role of a prism which collects myriad perspectives and points of view about OU to light up our horizon in a kaleidoscope of color.