As the first hints of autumn push into the final weeks of summer, the nights have grown cool enough to reach for a blanket.
By almost any measure, Mindungsan in Jeongseon-gun ranks among the five most iconic autumn destinations in South Korea.
The rise of a small mountain deep in Gangwon Province to international recognition owes much to local residents — but design has played an equally indispensable role.
The Gangwon Design Promotion Agency and Jeongseon-gun county government won the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Award in the project category at the Korea Public Design Awards for their "Mindungsan Place Branding and Landmark Development" project.
The Korea Public Design Awards, hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and organized by the Korea Craft and Design Foundation (KCDF), is a government prize that identifies and promotes outstanding examples of public design that have improved the quality of life for communities and citizens. This year, 17 works were selected in total — 14 in the project category and three in the research category.
The Gangwon Design Promotion Agency and Jeongseon-gun signed an MOU in 2024 and began building a brand to develop Mindungsan's natural and tourism resources into a new brand asset for the region. They have since advanced the project in stages — covering spatial design, wayfinding systems and content — and are now in their third phase as of 2026.
Design has transformed Mindungsan into a tourism destination that holds its own anywhere in the world. Beyond the sweeping waves of silver pampas grass that crown the summit each autumn, the mountain is home to a doline pond — often called the Hallasan crater lake of the Korean interior — along with scenic charm and a mountain-village way of life steeped in humanistic depth.
The agency and Jeongseon-gun reinterpreted the mountain's distinctive natural features — its pampas grass plains, karst dolines and red soil — as design resources, then applied a brand identity drawn from the mountain's ridgelines and natural patterns consistently across spaces, facilities and content.
The team established "Layers of Nature" — a concept drawn from the mountain's topography and natural environment — as the core design language, applying it to landmarks, wayfinding elements, and entry and information facilities. Materials such as Corten steel, which blend naturally into the surrounding landscape as they age, were used to realize a public design that honors the distinctive character of the place.
The project earned high marks for going beyond simple facility upgrades to build a sustainable place-branding model that integrates brand identity, spatial design, content and operations. Since the project launched, online searches and visits from outside the region have increased, drawing attention to the effort as a model for turning a locality's unique natural resources into a competitive tourism asset through design.
Jin Jae-han, director of the Gangwon Design Promotion Agency, said the award "is a successful example of Jeongseon-gun and the Gangwon Design Promotion Agency working closely together to elevate the value of the region's unique resources through public design." He added that the agency would "continue to apply high-quality design to diverse tourism sites and natural and cultural resources across Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province, contributing to the revitalization of the local economy and fostering pride among residents."
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