Samsung Design Europe

The design end of the world’s second largest electronics company, Samsung Design creates products from home appliances to TV and multimedia.

The company

The design division of the world’s second largest electronics company, Samsung Design creates products from home appliances to TV and multimedia. But it also looks at potential products for the future and has a diverse range of staff looking at user-interfaces as key to that development, with inspiring, aspirational design being at its creative heart.  This can include graphic design, ‘ storytelling’ and the user interface and experience.

Samsung – the word means ‘tri-star’ or ‘three stars’ in Korean – was founded in 1969 and today is one of the largest multi-billion dollar corporations in the world.

Think London originally helped Samsung set up its studio in central London in 2001 and has continued working with the company during its time in London, including supporting its expansion into bigger premises.

Over a number of years Think London have worked with Samsung on issues ranging from: property search and location, business reports on London’s design capabilities, ongoing links with relevant creative sector bodies and institutions and supporting Samsung Design Europe to put the business case forward for a London location to Executives in Korea.

Aim

Samsung aims to build a creative network and construct a new ‘engine’ for the next 10 years built on a growing understanding of the user experience in technology.

Samsung Design Europe aims to work on devising this planned future and the London office aims to become the pre-eminent design studio in the company’s network.

Think London helped with: 

• Assisting Samsung Design Europe in finding adequate office accommodation in central London
• Helping the company on an ongoing basis to make contacts in related London design fields
• Providing ongoing training for its staff
• Setting up meetings, events and visits with arts bodies and institutions
• Preparing business reports and information on the design sector in London for Samsung’s Head Quarters in order to build the continued business case for London

Market factors

• More than half a million people are employed in the creative industries sector in London, and 1 in 5 of all new jobs in London are in the creative industries
• The UK market for design-related activity is estimated to exceed $40 billion annually
• London is the world’s third largest music market: the UK is Europe’s market leader with consumer spending reaching $5.7 billion on 2005; 90% of UK activity takes place in London. Major record labels in London include Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music, EMI and Warner Music Group
• London leads the way in the growth areas of mobile, broadband and wireless technologies and is at the forefront of developing Europe’s third generation wireless networks. Business Successhere Samsung Design Europe is growing its team in terms of staff numbers owing to demand and the nature of the work in hand. It is building a network to expand and capitalise on its resources and infrastructure

In their own words

“London’s skillset and talent pool have a direct link to Samsungs needs in terms of the creative sector. Of course London has a great financial sector too, but if I’m correct the creative industry is the second biggest in London right now.

“London’s creative industries are obviously the best in so many ways – in terms of size, in terms of the variety and in terms of the human resource available. Samsung is still a consumer Electronics company at heart creating a product for a market. But creativity is just as important and our philosophy is that creativity should not just be about ‘today’. We need to stretch creative concepts to ten years from now - we need to talk about the future. What London is providing us and is going through right now in terms of creative industries is a great model to project or prototype the future of creative industries and in turn, our future.

“Think London has worked with Samsung for many years now and based on my experience and that of my predecessor, Think London has provided us with unlimited help and support! Their help was given across a wide spectrum – for example, they helped in terms of the location of our office, which was quite important because we needed to consider many things.

“Think London also helped Samsung keep up with industry trends in London and what is actually happening in London. Currently, Think London is also helping us create a high level business network, which is very important for me personally and for the business. For example Think London invited me to a dinner reception sponsored by the Bank of England where I met core members of London’s creative industries. I met the Director of Yahoo, Google and Nissan Automotive Design – all through Think London. They really are opening doors!”

SungHan Kim
Head of Office, Samsung Design Europe

“The reason why we have chosen London? The first thing is the language and the ease of communication. There are a lot of great cities in terms of heritage in European countries but London is a multinational melting pot of different cultures and influences as well as having a unified and global language – English. So there was no doubt to decide to set up our office in London.

“When we came to set up our London office in 2001, we didn’t know about commercial laws or any other regulations regarding business operations in the UK. Think London provided a lot of advice and imparted knowledge and information regarding setting up a commercial business here. A second big piece of help Think London provided was when we tried to find new premises. Think London invited a lot of architects and property agencies as well as other useful agents to find suitable premises for us. Think London was a great help."

Harry Choi
Former head of office, Samsung Design Europe

For more information about Samsung, please visit www.samsung.com

Click here to read this case study in Korean