• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.300-311
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to investigate design process and production in the Korean knitwear industry and to examine the possibility for our knitwear industry to develop into the developed countries' model. This purpose was empirically pursued through questionnaires, of which respondents were 110 designers, merchandiser(MD), and top managers of knitwear companies and jobbers in Seoul. The questionnaires were analyzed on the basis of such statistical tools as χ²-test, t-test, and one-way ANOVA. Findings of this study were as follows. Designers of knitwear companies evaluated that their design is more creative than that of designers of jobbers. But designers of knitwear companies and jobbers all responded that they obtained their design ideas from samples produced by leading foreign knitwear companies. The dominant form by which knitwear companies use jobbers was that knitwear companies do a major part of designing and order jobbers to elaborate it and produce knitwear samples. The most important reason of hiring jobbers was to obtain specialized technical skills and knowledge.

• Archives of design research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.73-82
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• 2003

This paper presents a case study of designing the stroller and its renting system for department stores in order to verify the feasibility of the participatory design approach, in particular the concept generation toolkits and the participatory design workshops, in the product development process. As the concept generation toolkits to draw active user participation, a Velcro Covered stroller model and a Block Layout System were developed and used in a series of the participatory design workshops. The results suggest that the participatory design approach provides better understanding of what the users want and allows designers to avoid false expectation about the design context. It was also found that the experience of design team with the users in the workshop was a good source of design ideation. The study also suggests that participatory design approach can become more effective by developing the concept generation toolkits which are more appropriate for design problems and the methods to smoothly transform the concepts from users into synthesized design solutions.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.355-386
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• 2006

This paper analyses recent regional development policies being carried out in Japan and the U.S. Such policies are formed on the sustainability principle aiming at the realization of circula-flow economy and zero waste society. The study here illuminates Japan's Eco-town project and three cases of eco-industrial developments in Minnesota. Such projects have gone from improving industry competitiveness through constructing clean production systems on the company level to improving national competitiveness through constructing a 'circular society' on the government level. Japan included the realization of a 'circular society' as its government's top agenda because it recognized that environmental pollution stems from the inefficient use of natural resources. Eco-town project is a regional development policy specifically reflecting such recognition. The eco-efficiency based city development approaches in Minnesota are but small examples of the new wave in regional development in the developed countries. We need to go beyond emphasizing eco-friendly and ethical management to just the companies. The government itself needs to design national policies based on environmental sustainability.