AppleInsider Staff
Looking to freshen up its product range, Samsung in January found a new head of global design in Don-tae Lee, former co-president of a London-based design consultancy called Tangerine, which had Apple SVP of Design Jony Ive as one of its earliest employees.
With Lee heading up its global design team, Samsung looks to bring Tangerine's design "DNA" to its product lineup, and hopes to mirror the success Apple found with Ive, reports Korea Joongang Daily. The Korean company previously worked with Tangerine on various design concepts, including a bathtub.
Lee, a a Seoul native who graduated from the UK's Royal College of Art in London, started at Tangerine as an intern in 1998 before moving quickly through the ranks to end up as co-president in 2005. He is perhaps best known for an ingenious S-shaped airline seating arrangement that won the Interior Design Excellence Awards' Grand Prix in 2001. British Airways adopted the seats, which afford enough room to fold out into a flat bed, in both its business class and first class cabins. He also teaches industrial design at Hongik University in Seoul.
Aside from working for the firm where Ive cut his teeth, there is little evidence that Lee's philosophies overlap those of the renowned Apple designer. For one, Lee started at Tangerine some six years after Ive left for Apple.
Tangerine was founded in 1989 by Martin Darbyshire, its current CEO, as well as Clive Griner. Ive joined Tangerine in its second year, and was one of the first four people at the consultancy. He eventually left for Apple after working on "Project Juggernaut" for the company.
Former Apple design chief Robert Brunner discovered Ive through a contract with Tangerine and, after seeing his work, tried to lure him away from his work in the U.K. to Cupertino. As Ive put it in a recent interview, he had to choose between working with Apple and designing bathroom fixtures for a British ceramics company.
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29 Comments
They realize they didn't hire Jony Jr, right?
Some guy did some stuff a long time ago with some other people and now works for somebody else that does stuff.
Samsung execs have been spotted at Jony Ive's childhood schools and teenage haunts, notebook in hand asking probing questions about his likes and dislikes. They have been observed in restaurants trying to catch a glimpse of what Jony is ordering and they have been seen following the man into clothing stores and reappearing with identical purchases. All in a desperate effort to pick up some of that elusive JI DNA. This latest hire will bring them one step closer. Apparently they have been spotted all over Robertsdale, Alabama, too. It may take time but Samsung will not give up until they have gathered enough DNA to beat Apple at its own game. They will decode and reassemble the DNA in a special dedicated lab at Samsung HQ and will eventually drizzle it all over Its computer, tablet and smartphone operations, from their top secret design studios (Apple Style) to the final assembly lines. When that day comes.... WOOOSH! [mind blown]
Samsung had two requirements, otherwise Lee's hiring wouldn't be Apple-like! Those requirements are that he speak with an English accent. The other, he pronounces 'aluminum' in that cute Jony Ive way...
What's he growing in the petri dishes?