User:Junhww/Jong-suh Park

Jong-suh Park (Korean: 박종서; born 1947) is a South Korean automobile designer. He is well-known as the first generation of car designers in South Korea. He is also a founder of the FOMA (Form of Motors and arts) Museum in Korea. He formerly worked for Hyundai as a vice-president of a design center in South Korea. He graduated from Hongkin university in 1971 and he majored in Art and craft. He started his career as a product designer in 1971 at Daehan electronics. He designed TV and consumer electronics at that time. In 1976, he got a master’s degree in art history at Hongik university, and he joined Hyundai Motors in 1979. At that time, when he joined Hyundai as an automotive designer, there were only 4 designers in the studio. He was so frustrated at that time because it is so hard to learn about car design. In the 70’s, it was the beginning of the Korean automotive industry and there are not many experts in the country. So Hyundai supported his study at Royal College of Design in London, and he moved to London in 1981. During his study at RCA, he learned “Car culture” rather than just a technique because there was no “Car-culture” in South Korea at that time. He is the first Korean in the Royal College of Arts. After the study in London, he came back to Korea and worked on most of the design projects of Hyundai Motors. At that time, Hyundai did not have the ability to build a car from sketch to final production model. They designed the car by themselves, but they bought the mold from Japan. But he wanted to do the whole process of making car by their own, so he worked really hard to do it. Hyundai Scoop and Tiburon are the result of hard work. Those two cars are the first car that Hyundai built everything by themselves. During his 24 years of career at Hyundai, he worked on most of their production vehicles. In 1995, he became the chief designer of Hyundai Design Research Department and in 2001, he was promoted to vice-president of Hyundai Motors. He retired in 2004 and he founded the automotive museum called FOMA(Form of  Motors and arts) and he is also focusing on teaching young designers in university.

His design philosophy can be simplified in one word, which is “Nature”. He believes that nature has the best form and aesthetic. His most well-known design “Hyundai Tiburon” shows clearly about his design philosophy.

His son, Chan-hwi Park is also a car designer. He also graduated from RCA and he works for AUDI right now.