Kim Hyun-been

One of the hottest items by the 2009 Next Generation Designers chosen by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the Korea Institute of Design Promotion and the Maeil Business Newspaper was the DrinKlip, a cup-holding clip which attaches to the side of a table to create extra space for people with small workstations.

The designer, Kim Hyun-been, has a senior job with LG Electronics and is the creative director of her own design website Beeeen.com. Named Next Generation Designer twice, in 2006 and in this year, Kim says she sleeps only four hours a day.

Kim has designed many other items, but DrinKlip has had a phenomenal reception. It was displayed and sold in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and she was invited to have an individual exhibition at the Industrial Design Expo in Beijing.

A graduate of the Department of Industrial Design at Hongik University, Kim pursues living design firmly rooted in everyday life. Her works are not the product of long hours of creative agony, but of ideas she came across coincidentally while seeking ways to make life more convenient.

Kim adds she always tries to avoid set patterns of thinking. Her job at LG Electronics is advanced design of mobile phones. This alone is a big task, so how can she cope with two jobs? "To be honest, it's not easy," she says. "My job at LG is a lot of fun and fulfilling, but I also had a strong desire to make my own work as well."

What are her dreams for the future? "It might sound very bold, but I want to set up a design school and also a scholarship foundation."