This Media-Facade was established on an outer wall of Seoul Square in 2009.                               (http://www.samsungimaging.co.kr)

  A compound word, “Media-Facade” is formed from the English word “media” and the French word “facade”. Media-Facade is made of LEDs and is established on outer walls. Therefore, the whole building becomes a large display. People think that Media-Facades use lots of electric power due to millions of lights, but operating expenses are relatively low because LEDs’ power consumption is low and companies don’t use Media-Facades except during hours of operation.

  Media-Facades use the form of natural and beautiful pop art, and it is different from normal advertisements which just show words and products. Therefore, people are shocked, and they pay attention to Media-Facades. The interest and attraction of people are connected with marketing because people have some recognition about company as well as corporate images when they see Media-Facades. Many companies pay a lot of money for Media-Facades due to these effects of marketing.

 

  In Korea, the Luxury Hall of the Galleria department store was the first building which established a Media-Facade in 2004. The staff members of the department store said that the profit of advertisements from using a Media-Facade has reached 15,000 million won a year. Some experts expect that Media-Facades will express many more colors than before and the motion will be much smoother as the science develops. They also predict an increase of the number of companies which advertise themselves by using Media-Facades, and the buildings that use Media-Facades will possibly become landmarks of the cities.

By Kim Seon-yeong

ksy31@cbnu.ac.kr