The Pepsi Man Is Coming to Save Samsung From Boring Design

Samsung has one of nan biggest merchandise statement ups of immoderate tech brand, yet erstwhile it comes to design, it’s consistently seen arsenic an “also-ran.” While different companies person forged unique and instantly recognizable creation languages, specified arsenic Nothing, Samsung has recovered itself down successful nan style stakes. When you’ve sewage Apple arsenic 1 of your biggest competitors, that’s not a awesome position to beryllium in.

That’s not to opportunity location haven’t been improvements successful nan past decade, and nan occasional flashes of promise—most notable successful its collaborations pinch outer designers, for illustration nan Bouroullec brothers, who fashioned nan Serif TV for nan South Korean company. But that hasn’t stopped complaints of boring and unoriginal design, some internally and externally, and an inertia erstwhile it has led, leaving different companies to adjacent nan gap.

Being defined by capacity complete characteristic has hardly done Samsung’s bottommost statement immoderate harm—it precocious regained its lead from Apple successful global smartphone marketplace share and has been nan global leader successful TVs for almost 2 decades. But, successful 2025, it looks there’s yet a clear desire from Samsung to span nan spread betwixt shape and function, by giving creation nan attraction it’s been lacking for acold excessively agelong astatine nan company.

Back successful April, Samsung hired Mauro Porcini, its first ever main creation officer. Porcini has spent much than 20 years building award-winning creation teams astatine 3M and PepsiCo, astir precocious starring a successful global rebrand for Pepsi—the company’s first successful 14 years.

For a institution arsenic large arsenic Samsung, this prosecute feels late. Apple created nan aforesaid position for Jony Ive a decade ago, astir nan aforesaid clip it was reported that invention astatine Samsung was being stifled beneath layers of management. With those structural issues supposedly unpicked, Samsung now has activity to do—something Porcini is keen to acknowledge.

Late to nan Party

“We are successful a infinitesimal of change, wherever nan measurement group interact pinch immoderate benignant of instrumentality aliases physics instrumentality is going to beryllium radically different successful nan coming years,” Porcini tells me. “These machines will alteration nan measurement group live, work, and link pinch each other—the measurement group fulfil their needs. For a institution for illustration Samsung, having creation astatine nan top, progressive successful nan measurement you specify nan early of nan portfolio based connected those needs—it’s much important than ever.”

The march of AI is, of course, a adjuvant hook upon which to necktie this agelong overdue move, but Yves Béhar, nan laminitis and main designer astatine Fuseproject who worked pinch Samsung connected The Frame TV, tells maine this has been years successful nan making, and thing Samsung had initially looked externally to thief put nan wheels successful motion.

“When we started moving pinch Samsung connected The Frame [released successful January 2017], nan CEO astatine nan time, HS Kim, came to america and said—look, we want to toggle shape ourselves from a user exertion company, into an acquisition business,” says Béhar. “So we helped them group immoderate principles astir that, and worked connected getting that connection retired into nan business—of what it intends to deliberation astir acquisition versus tech. This is precisely what we did pinch The Frame TV.”