"The most personal is the most creative." Director Bong Joon-ho, who recently astonished the world by winning four Academy Awards for the film 'Parasite,' drew attention when he cited this phrase—once spoken by the director he admires, Martin Scorsese—in his acceptance speech. This award is also the fruit of Bong Joon-ho's will to believe in himself, having captivated audiences worldwide with what is most authentically 'him.'
For a person to explore their own identity and essence is an active exercise of the will to establish oneself. It is not about seeing the pinnacle of that completion, but about discovering the true 'self' through the process of exploration, recognizing the facts of one's identity, and growing from them. And the exploration of essence does not remain within the realm of the individual. A company's essence and identity, too, are brought to completion through the active will and actions of the members who make up the company.
Sang-A Tile, with a 41-year history, has spent the past decade exploring its own essence and identity and continuing the process of finding a color all its own. Recognized as a leading brand in the imported tile sector, Sang-A Tile—since CEO Choi Hyung-kyu took office in 2012—has continued its efforts to grow into a future-oriented and sustainable company, building upon the identity of Sang-A Tile shaped by founder and Chairman Choi Hwang-sik. CEO Choi Hyung-kyu explained, "I wanted the long-established Sang-A Tile not to remain in the spirit of its past era, but to walk the journey of finding its own color through a process of meaningful change—together with the company's members," adding, "The power of every member believing in themselves and creating Sang-A Tile's unique identity is being demonstrated as our finest competitive edge amid the recently challenging domestic market conditions."
Sang-A Tile's identity also sets itself apart in the company's own 'aesthetic eye' for selecting tiles. Sang-A Tile trades with some 30 companies annually across Italy, Spain, China, India, Turkey, and elsewhere, and 70% of its distributed products consist of Italian brands. When choosing a tile, Sang-A Tile focuses on the history embedded within the product. A product's design intent, development process, and production method are like a living being completed while embracing a history of its own. A tile product that carries history and meaning, rather than one driven solely by a sales strategy, meets Sang-A Tile's identity and creates a synergistic effect. By supplying tiles that match the identity of the space a designer or consumer wishes to express, Sang-A Tile is contributing to the spread of a 'culture of consuming value.'
Every single tile filling Sang-A Tile's headquarters showroom is a gathering place for the identity Sang-A Tile is building. The showroom, comprising a total of six floors across 1,652.8㎡ (500 pyeong), offers consumers boundless inspiration through tiles imbued with history. The showroom, which has been with Sang-A Tile from its very beginning, is a place that holds Sang-A Tile's history and a space where its future is being built. The recently remodeled second-floor showroom was named the 'Tile Library' to signify the sharing of the tile trends Sang-A Tile has proposed over the past five to six years. Through ongoing floor-by-floor remodeling, Sang-A Tile continues to introduce new tile designs, and by installing natural-color lighting it conveys the most realistic tile colors and patterns without distortion. In particular, taking into account the nature of tiles as a semi-finished product, it stages completed spaces within the showroom to suggest effective ways of using the tiles.
Contributing to the Expansion of the Large-Format Tile Market, Opening Korea's First Dedicated Big Slab Showroom
The item Sang-A Tile has chosen in finding 'a color of its own' and building a more sustainable corporate competitiveness is the 'Big Slab Tile.' Since the mid-2010s, Sang-A Tile has taken note of the worldwide market scalability of large-format tiles and begun introducing them to the domestic market, opening Korea's first dedicated big slab showroom on the first floor of its Nonhyeon-dong headquarters to provide an exhibition space where domestic consumers can experience them firsthand. In the 260㎡ showroom, full-size panels are displayed exactly as they are, allowing visitors to directly experience the post-installation realism that cannot be felt from catalogs or samples.
Large-format tiles are thin and light, and with the advantage of their large dimensions they are emerging as a key item in the tile industry. In particular, ultra-high-resolution digital printing enables realistic representations of designs such as natural stone, marble, metal, and wood, making them a globally acclaimed alternative to costly finite resources. Tiles that in the past were broken into small dimensions for the convenience of installation and transport can now, through the application of enlargement and digital printing technologies, be manufactured to reproduce the beautiful patterns of natural stone in their true proportions. CEO Choi Hyung-kyu explained, "The stone and marble with beautiful patterns used in architecture and interiors were formed over a long time and are limited in quantity, so they are resources that will someday no longer be found on Earth," adding, "The alternative left to us is to digitally recreate the beauty of stone and marble anew within large-format tiles."
Even in Korea, consumption of large-format tiles in the 800×800㎜ and 600×1200㎜ dimensions is now increasing, primarily in the retail market, and housing construction companies are also adopting large-format tiles in the design of apartments in the Gangnam area. Recently, the scope of application has been expanding from large buildings to residential spaces such as art walls, kitchens, and hallways. Sang-A Tile has laid the cornerstone for expanding the domestic market for large-format tiles—now established as a global trend—by creating an exhibition space that can showcase them effectively, and it has built its competitiveness by keeping full stock of its products, just like ordinary tiles, so that consumers can install them without waiting. The large-format tiles supplied by Sang-A Tile are imported mainly from Italy and Spain, and it continuously unveils 20 new collections each year. The main dimensions include 600×1200㎜, 750×1500㎜, 800×1600㎜, 900×1800㎜, 1200×2400(2800)㎜, and 1600×3200㎜, with thicknesses of 6㎜, 12㎜, and 20㎜. 02-3442-1250
▲ Emil 'Breccia' Big Slab (1200×2400㎜)
▲ MARAZZI 'My Stone Pietra di Vals' Inspired by rare Swiss quartzite stone, this product enables sophisticated space design with its intense veining and the striking presence of its distinctive gray tones. It can be applied to both commercial and residential spaces and is available in five sizes.
▲ The first floor of the Sang-A Tile showroom is presented as Korea's first dedicated large-format tile gallery, designed so that visitors can experience a variety of products firsthand.
▲ MARAZZI 'Grande Marble' Composed of four marble patterns, it is available in two surface finishes—an elegant gloss and a matte—and in a 6㎜ thickness. With even more captivating marble pattern designs, its aesthetic refinement and durability come together, making it suitable for a variety of spaces and furniture.
FONDAVALLE 'Planeto' With its diverse colors and refined design, it is applied to furniture to create a perfectly original space. Creative and varied forms of veining create an elegant and sophisticated style.