[INTERVIEW] Porsche senior exterior designer urges students to 'stay creative'

For 17-year-old Chung Woo-sung, an image of a Porsche 917 from a magazine was magnificent enough to inspire him to dream of becoming a car designer.

Chung Woo-sung, a senior exterior designer at Porsche, speaks during a recent interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily at Kintex, Gyeonggi. [PORSCHE KOREA]

For 17-year-old Chung Woo-sung, an image of a Porsche 917 from a magazine was magnificent enough to inspire him to dream of becoming a car designer.

That young Chung, after two decades, eventually achieved his goal and became Porsche's first Korean exterior designer. To make his dream come true, Chung even took a gap year to enter Hongik University, Korea’s most prestigious university in design.

“The Porsche 917 is flawless, a car that is extremely beautiful exterior-wise, but also very outstanding at speed,” Chung, senior exterior designer at Porsche, told the Korea JoongAng Daily on the sidelines of the Seoul Mobility Show at Kintex, Gyeonggi.

Chung appeared onstage at the country's biggest auto show, which was held from March 31 to April 9, to introduce the Vision 357 concept sports car which made its Asia debut.

Chung was a member of a design team for the car model, which is an homage to the first-ever Porsche sports car, the 356, the dream sports car made by Ferry Porsche, the legendary car designer and founder of the German carmaker.

Around 120 designers work for Porsche at Style Porsche in Weissach, Germany. Of them, only 10 are responsible for exterior design.

Chung is one of two Koreans there. The other is Chung’s younger friend who also studied at Hongik University.

Chung Woo-sung, a senior exterior designer at Porsche, speaks during a recent interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily at Kintex, Gyeonggi. [PORSCHE KOREA]

For over a decade of his career at Porsche, Chung participated in designing different models including the 911 GT2 RS and Mission E Cross Turismo.

“It’s all competition among designers at Porsche, we all have to be evaluated with our design works and planning abilities,” Chung added.

When asked about his most memorable project, Chung said the Porsche 919 Street.

“The 919 Street is a concept car that I took care of from A to Z,” Chung explained. “The one-year process was very tough, but that is also why it is one of my pet projects.”

The Porsche 919 Street concept car is based on the technology used in the Porsche 919 Hybrid, the model that was victorious in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a sports car race held annually in Le Mans, France, in 2017.

Porsche showcased the Porsche 919 Street concept car in Korea in April, for the first time in Asia, and Chung was up on the stage to explain the development process.

Porsche's 919 Street concept car, which was designed by Chung. [PORSCHE KOREA]

“Porsche cars must be recognized as Porsche just from a glance,” Chung said explaining his design philosophy.

“Though Porsche is also shifting to electric vehicles, the design will not change, and Porsche will maintain its DNA that we kept for 75 years.”

The German carmaker aims to shift 50 percent of its vehicles to electric by 2025 and 80 percent by 2030.

“Stay creative,” Chung advised Korean students studying design who also dream of becoming car designers.

“It’s important that they learn in school, but the most critical is the environment they are in,” Chung added. “Inspiration never comes on a table of a covered room. Be open to nature and diverse and unique cultures.”

Korea is Porsche's sixth-largest market. Porsche sold a total of 8,963 vehicles last year in the Korean market, a record-high yearly figure and up 6.3 percent on year, according to data by the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association.

In the first quarter of the year, sales rose by 23.3 percent on year.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]