Samsung

2007 AIGA CORPORATE LEADERSHIP AWARD

Recognized as a global leader in design-driven, user-centered, technologically innovative consumer electronics.

Over the past decade, Samsung has become a respected global brand and gained international recognition as an innovator in telecommunications and high-definition technology. By raising design standards to equal its engineering expertise, Samsung has shaken the ground once held firmly by industry stalwarts such as Nokia and Sony, with a goal of offering “endless possibilities to achieve higher standards of living everywhere.”

Although the company's origins as a Korea-based trade exporter date back to 1938, Samsung Electronics was officially established in January 1969. Focusing on items such as television sets and home appliances, the business earned a reputation for being efficient and reliable, but not quite cutting edge. In the 1990s, Samsung executives undertook major efforts to rebrand the company and adopted a vision statement—“Leading the Digital Convergence Revolution”—to mark an overall shift toward digital integration. Samsung now excels in a wide range of technology products—from memory chips and MP3 players to portable printers and smartphones, including the BlackJack. Under the corporate management of CEO Kun-Hee Lee, Samsung is a leader in next-generation consumer electronics, ranking number one in the production of LCD TVs and number two in the highly competitive cell phone market.

Samsung's rapid growth and success stem from its investment in research and development and in user-centered design. From its design labs in Seoul, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Tokyo and Shanghai, Samsung designers emerge with innovations both exceedingly large—such as a 102-inch plasma TV—and small—like its Ultra Edition II series, which includes the slimmest slider phone. Since 2000, 26 of its products have received Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), presented by the Industrial Designers Society of America and BusinessWeek, including last year's Touch Messenger cell phone with Braille keypad.

In 2004 Samsung opened a 10,000 square-foot lifestyle “un-store” in New York City's Time Warner Center. Working with collaborators such as John Maeda and his MIT Media Lab students, the Samsung Experience was developed as an interactive space in which to learn and play with new products before they reach the market.

Whether striving to create the world's largest TV or smallest, lightest phone, when Samsung says, “Imagine,” the possibilities really are limitless.