Western design history is not a universal story of the field Writing history for Korean design that benefits our lives

Design critic Choi Bum has been asking direct questions about Korean design for many years, and has set the stage for discourses such as this one. This book is the first of its kind, as it is written by a Korean on Western design history. Choi Bum emphasizes that most books dealing with design history are translations written by Westerners or Japanese writers, but all of them come under the banner of “design history.” This book begins its discussion at this point. The author says that because we have accepted Western design history as something “absolutely universal,” we should otherize and relativize Western design history. This is because design that is derived from the West was not initially Koreanized, and could therefore not escape the colonialism of modern times. This is why The History of Western Design is so important today. One reason why this book is even more special lies in its illustrations. The book reveals historical moments with pencil drawn illustrations to highlight history with even more realism than photography.