Hankook Tire holds Design Innovation Day to share design strategy, achievements

Hankook Tire & Technology announced Monday that it held its 2026 Design Innovation Day on Friday at Hankook Technodome, a high-tech research facility in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon.

This year's event was organized around the theme "Define Identity, Reveal Performance," bringing together employees to share the company's design strategy and key achievements.

A highlight of the event was the first public unveiling of a unified design identity system covering three major brands: Ieon, the world's first full-lineup electric vehicle-exclusive tire brand; Ventus, its flagship brand; and Dynapro, its SUV-dedicated brand. The presentation went beyond previous events, which had focused on design concepts and future vision, by establishing each brand's product design identity within a single coherent framework.

The company also debuted its next-generation product design language, intended for application across future products. The presentation clarified the design direction for each brand and laid out a concrete system for applying it consistently across the product lineup.

The event was structured around three sessions. The first covered design strategies for maintaining brand identity while effectively expressing product performance. Subsequent sessions introduced the next-generation product design language for Ieon, Ventus and Dynapro individually, translating each brand's core values into differentiated design. The event also presented a framework for cross-functional collaboration, bringing together research and development, product planning, marketing and design teams under a shared set of design standards.

"Through this event, we plan to align our design strategy and direction, improve efficiency in product development and accelerate decision-making, while strengthening global brand recognition and our premium image," a Hankook Tire & Technology official said. "We will also continue to build our design competitiveness in areas such as original equipment tire collaboration with global automakers and product development targeting global markets."

Hankook Tire & Technology this year claimed a triple win in the product design category at the Red Dot Design Award — with the Ventus Evo, Ieon AT and Laufenn S Fit2 — and went on to take two best-of-best honors and four honorable mentions in the design concept category, for a total of six awards.

Meanwhile, the company swept two categories in the 2026 Korean Standards-Quality Excellence Index survey conducted by the Korean Standards Association, ranking first in the automotive tire category for 18 consecutive years and first in the electric vehicle tire category for two consecutive years.