This study aims to identify the diverse types and characteristics of signatures that appear in contemporary fashion while primarily brand focusing on emerging Korean designer brands. To this end, qualitative content analysis using news articles and in-depth interviews with 15 emerging Korean designers were conducted. The news article analysis revealed six types of signatures: design based on formative sensibility expression, strategically constructed designer/brand identity, brand practices carried by cultural and spatial experiences, craftsmanship and custom production, contemporary reinterpretation of traditional designs, and text-based visual symbolic systems. The result of the in-depth interviews identified five types of signatures among emerging Korean designer brands: design expressions evolving from designer and brand identity, production emphasizing practicality and craftmanship, brand experiences based on spaces, visual narrative symbolism, and limited-edition items. Unlike established fashion brands that focus on fixed visual or textual elements through strategic planning by the established fashion brands, emerging Korean designer brands gradually and dynamically develop signatures which are grounded in personal philosophy, ethical values, and ongoing interaction with consumers. The findings of this study imply that the signatures of emerging Korean designer brands are not merely aesthetic repetitions, but are instead representations of evolving and situated expressions that interacts with and responds to socio-cultural changes and contexts.

A prototype of the GMT FSM has been developed to acquire and to enhance the key technology – mirror fabrication and tiptilt actuation. The ellipsoidal off-axis mirror has been designed, analyzed, and fabricated from light-weighting to grinding, polishing, and figuring of the mirror surface. The mirror was tested by using an interferometer together with CGHs, which revealed the surface error of 13.7 nm rms in the diameter of 1030 mm. The SCOTS test was employed to independently validate the test results. It measured the surface error to be 17.4 nm rms in the diameter of 1010 mm. Both tests show the optical surface of the FSMP mirror within the required value of 20 nm rms surface error.