mmmg

The section of the city I probably enjoyed the most was called Insadong. Filled with galleries and groovy little cafes and restaurants, it was a nice area to walk in (lots of souvenir shops too, but still). It’s here that I found the great design store Do Art, and where I picked up the above bag (mine is the brown one). Designed by a Korean group called mmmg (millimeter/milligram), they also had some nice stationary on display, which you can view at their site. At the same shop, which sold all the sorts of goodies that you tend to see in magazines and wish you could find them (well, living in Tokyo means that I can find stuff like that, but it might not be so easy in other parts of the world), I also picked up some nice widescreen postcards with art by a Korean artist called Nam June Pak (I’ll take a picture of them to post later). The shop sold stuff on the first floor and basement, and the upper floors had galleries. The whole area was packed with cafe/galleries, and it was really nice to see such a concentration of artistic promotion in one area, something that is sadly lacking in Tokyo. While checking out the mmmg website earlier tonight, I found listings for other design oriented shops in Seoul (an official mmmg store, The Galleria, Kyobo, Twim, There’s) that I’ll definitely have to visit on my next trip to the city.