Kia Design Magazine is a global online magazine that was launched by the Kia Design Center in 2021. It started with Kia’s unique design philosophy, “Opposites United (OU),” and today encompasses a diverse journey of related thoughts and stories. In 2021, Kia Design Magazine focused on encapsulating Kia's design philosophy within the web's unique medium, experimenting with design to help internal members internalize Kia's design philosophy. In contrast, starting in 2022, the website was made publicly accessible, and the content and design were renewed to ensure that the general public could easily access and understand Kia's design philosophy.

Designing a familiar and intuitive UX flow to focus on content
The renewed Kia Design Magazine showcased even more diverse content to expand OU into a cultural realm. As such, we restructured the magazine’s categories into Issue, People, Inspiration, Now, and Interview, aiming to convey a consistent message to readers by encapsulating diversity and timeliness within the framework of Kia’s OU philosophy.

The use of videos was actively incorporated to increase reader engagement, and an array of features that take the user experience into consideration were placed throughout the website to enable a more intuitive content experience. With the increased emphasis on media, we made it easier to focus on the content itself by centering on visual information such as photos and videos. Additionally, we established an efficient upload system that facilitates content delivery without the need for separate content reprocessing.

The Issue section constitutes the main stream that determines the overall flow of the entire magazine. It consisted of well-made films and interview articles that were centered on key themes of OU and based on conversations with renowned artists in Korea. The entire volume is tightly interwoven with contemporary relevance, providing fresh inspiration and enhancing the understanding of contemporary culture.

People section featured interviews with Kia Design Center employees, providing opportunities to understand their personal philosophies and dreams through the application of OU in their work. By interviewing individuals from various regions and different professions around the world, we have indirectly enhanced the understanding of the cultures and professions of those areas. Additionally, by examining OU-specific objects selected by center members, one can observe a diverse array of flexible interpretations of OU.

Inspiration section aims to function as a repository that accumulates and categorizes all images in the magazine with tags, including various images that inspire OU. By utilizing five concepts that make up OU as tags, we aimed to intuitively understanding by examining how the philosophy manifests when realized.

Now section provided in-depth reviews of major exhibitions and events being held around the world. In addition to exhibitions that can provide creative inspiration both domestically and internationally, Kia Design Magazine also covers events organized by the Kia Global Design Center, making it easy to access a wide range of cultures. Specifically, during UX planning, we added a "quick three-line summary" feature at the very beginning of the content to help readers develop interest and stay focused on the content until the end.

Lastly, the Interview section singled out two creators, both of whom offered unique inspiration related to OU, and presented their creative mindset and related knowledge through interview articles. Extending Kia's design philosophy of creatively merging contrasting concepts, each volume explored various creators around opposing key concepts, illuminating OU from multiple angles.

Through this renewal, Kia Design Magazine has transcended mobility design to encompass various creative fields such as crafts, music, dance, and cuisine. It have collaborated with 33 individuals from these diverse fields and covered eight different events, playing a role in not only internalizing the philosophy but also permeating it into everyday life.