Samsung’s new design chief could build the Galaxy S we’ve always wanted
After a reshuffling at Samsung’s design department last May, the South Korean tech giant is welcoming yet another new addition to their design team: former Tangerine co-CEO Don Tae Lee. Tangerine is credited with redesigning both British Airway’s and Virgin Australia’s sophisticated business class cabins.
Not too long ago, KBS even did a documentary on Lee, the “Korean business man at the forefront of the global design industry.” On the mobile side of things, Tangerine also worked with Huawei for a few concept devices back in 2011 that never quite made it to market. You can see those crazy devices in the video down below.
As Samsung’s new global design chief, Lee will work from the Design Management Center to lead the overall design of products, which includes everything from washers, televisions, refrigerators and yes, even mobile devices.
Before you get your hopes up, there’s no way to say for certain how much influence Lee will have on, say, the Samsung Galaxy S7 (the Galaxy S6 is a little too far down the pipeline). But it’s definitely nice to see Samsung moving down a path where they take design a little more seriously — especially after last year’s ho-hum Galaxy S5.
Given Lee’s previous work experience at Tangerine — a London-based design agency founded by Apple’s own Jony Ive — we’d say Samsung is in much better hands.