Hyundai Livart, the total interior company under the Hyundai Department Store Group, is launching ‘Pop Casual Furniture,’ a collection of 16 items that boldly combine disparate materials and colors in furniture design, drawing inspiration from the diverse artistic techniques used in pop art, watercolor painting, oil painting, and more. The newly launched products are small furniture pieces, including storage cabinets (5 models), tea tables (5 models), stools (3 models), mirrors (2 models), and a magazine rack (1 model), suitable for use as interior accents or by one- to two-person households.
‘Pop casual’ is a term commonly used in the fashion industry, referring to ‘an informal, novel way of combining elements that differs from the conventional.’ Until now, Hyundai Livart has mainly presented furniture with simple yet standardized designs featuring achromatic colors such as white and gray, but this time it is unveiling for the first time an original design collection that combines freely shaped curves with pastel tones and other colors.
First, Hyundai Livart drew inspiration from a variety of artistic techniques for this Pop Casual collection to differentiate its designs. The tea table (Dripping) was created using the ‘dripping’ painting technique, in which paint is dropped or splattered onto paper, while the mirror was produced using the ‘Martible’ painting technique, a method of applying paint in multiple layers to emphasize the innate beauty of the colors. The company is also releasing display cabinets (Depayse·Frottage) that use the ‘depaysement’ sculptural technique, which delivers visual impact through the juxtaposition of contrasting objects.
In addition, the collection boldly combines different, disparate materials. Representative examples include the ‘Cloisonne’ storage cabinet, which naturally connects cold-feeling metal with warm-feeling domestic solid wood, and the tea table (20T side table), which combines imitation natural stone made by blending cement and marble particles with ‘S-shaped’ steel.
To launch the Pop Casual Furniture line, Hyundai Livart formed a ‘Design TF Team (13 members)’ that spent the past four months on preparation. They studied colors, patterns, and materials suited to the tastes of the younger generation by referencing artworks from various fields, including masterpieces as well as metal art and installation art. To emphasize simplicity and a modern feel, in addition to the previously monotonous colors such as white and gray, they selected some 20 colors—including trendy primary colors and pastel tones—as the signature colors of the ‘Pop Casual Furniture’ line.
The prices of the ‘Pop Casual Furniture’ collection being launched are storage cabinets (700,000–1.4 million won), tea tables (100,000–1.3 million won), stools (150,000–500,000 won), mirrors (100,000–200,000 won), and magazine rack (270,000 won), which are about 30–50% higher than existing Hyundai Livart products. This is because, unlike existing furniture products, many pieces feature unconventional shapes with various bends and curves and were therefore made by hand, and because high-cost materials such as natural solid wood, terrazzo marble, and stainless chrome plating were used.
In particular, Hyundai Livart plans to create and operate dedicated ‘Pop Casual Furniture’ showrooms (approximately 10 pyeong each) at four locations: the Livart Gangnam showroom, Yongsan I’Park Mall, Giheung showroom, and Gimpo store.
