Foreword

When Wallpaper* talked to the Galaxy S8

designers in Seoul earlier this year, they told
a fascinating story. How the everyday miracle
of surface tension a droplet of water landing
on a flat surface of metal to create a convex
meniscus had inspired the design of the
Galaxy S8.
They explained that replicating this perfect
shape in glass and aluminium would require a
depth of technological understanding and respect
for modern engineering that would push the
designers to the very edge of their creative limits.
Hold the device in your hand, experience
the organic curves of its glass architecture,
and that understanding and mastery of materials
is immediately evident. Considered, tactile,
fluid and elegantly proportioned, the Galaxy S8
is the perfect balance of contemporary industrial
design and neutral, harmonious aesthetics.
Blurring the lines between art and technology,
this is a product of true design substance,
mirrored by its dynamic and innovative
user experience.
As the worlds leading authority on design,
Wallpaper* has collaborated with Samsung to
introduce the Galaxy S8 and explore its evolution
from sketch book to manufacture.
We commissioned award-winning writers,
editors and art directors to create a book that
un-boxes the ideas, influences and philosophies
behind the worlds most beautiful phone.
The Galaxy S8 design story begins here

Simon Mills, Bespoke Editor

Wallpaper*
01
 The Samsung Galaxy S8

Design Philosophy
is a device for our
modern age. A distilled
expression of core
essence and intrinsic
values, the Galaxy S8
embodies an aesthetic of
oneness and neutrality.
Pursuing naturalness
rather than novelty,
the Galaxy S8 is art
and technology working
in perfect balance.

02 03
 At the core of Samsungs pioneering spirit of innovation is as
much about philosophy as technology.
NeutralityApplying the fundamentals of

the Galaxy S8
neutrality to the design of the Galaxy S8 took years
of research and development and a complete
rethink of what a mobile device should be. With
a strong and flexible but fluid design ethos that

is the concept
blends naturally into its environment, the Galaxy S8
is a device not defined by age, gender or geography.
OnenessAt the core of the Galaxy S8 is the
concept of oneness, where technology, design and

of oneness.
user experience unite seamlessly. Every element is
considered in relation to one another form, function
and feel to ensure that they complement rather
than complicate the device.

Where design,
EssenceSamsung has stripped back
unnecessary internal elements to get to the very
essence of the phone. The goal is a more natural
interaction: without the barrier of the bezel

technology
frame, the relationship between device
and user becomes an enhanced and immersive
wide-screen experience.
HarmonyEngagement with technology on

and user
an organic level was created through a series of
eyes closed tests touching, feeling and holding
the device to detect even the smallest discrepancies
in grip, curve and texture in pursuit of the perfect

experience
harmony between symmetry and proportion.
Liquid ShadeThe influence of nature informs
the colour palette for the Galaxy S8. Samsungs
Liquid Shade spectrum explores the depth of lustre

are unified
as seen through the surface tension of a water
droplet on metal.
Curved DesignInspired by the simple
beauty of a smooth pebble, the perfectly minimal
shape of the Galaxy S8 has natural, rounded lines
that inform both the architecture and the tactile
qualities of the crafted glass.
The Galaxy S8 is total design refinement.
Oneness in the palm of your hand.

04 05
 oneness

06
07
 Design Story I. 10 Forward Thinking

How It All Began: The Galaxy S8 Designers Explain

14 Crafting the Future

A Photographic Tour of the Samsung Factory

21 Galaxy S8

A Device for Our Modern Age: The Smartphone Redefined

38 More Than a Phone

Life In 360 Samsung Galaxy Eco-system

51 Immerse Yourself

Experience More with Galaxy S8s Infinity Display

56 Being Iconic

The All-New Visual Language of the Galaxy S8

II. Beyond Design By Wallpaper*

60

62 Neutrality By Simon Mills

66 Oneness By Kevin Braddock

70 Essence By Alice Rawsthorn

74 Harmony By Nick Compton

78 Spectrum By Leandro Farina

III. 89 Open
An early design sketch
of the Samsung Galaxy S8

The Thrill of the Un-boxing Experience

08 09
 Forward
Thinking
Photography by Yasuyuki Takagi

How do you rethink what

a mobile device should be?
Wallpaper* talked to Samsung
Galaxy S8 designers

LEFTMembers of Samsungs
Galaxy S8 Design Team:
Chongyoon Chung, Minyoung
Jeong, Yunjin Kim, Hwanju Jeon
RIGHTJunho Yang,
Minhyouk Lee (standing on
left), Hyoungshin Park, Hyoksu
Choi, Hyejin Bang at the Leeum
Samsung Museum of Art
Minhyouk Lee and Simon Mills discuss the
thinking that influenced the hardware design
of the Galaxy S8.
How do you begin to create a device
like the Samsung Galaxy S8?
Our approach to design starts with our users.
How they feel about our products and what
their diverse needs are. So we create, modify
and refine our designs based on their feedback
and ideas. This helps us to achieve neutrality;
a design-driven approach that results in a new
generation device. Without noticing, users can
experience high performance embedded in a
subtle, neutral design which blends naturally
into its environment, seamlessly integrating
with their lives regardless of age, gender or
location. Neutrality is flexible, intuitive and
strong and provides the user with natural
experiences: feeling, holding, interacting.
The Galaxy S8 is an organically designed
object that combines human factors, reflecting
comfort through user-friendliness.
How has neutrality influenced the design
of the Galaxy S8?
Lengthy deliberations on the essential values
provided by mobile phones suggested that
users want a more natural flow between their
phone and their experiences.
Describe the relationship between the
design team and the technical engineers?
In the first stage of the project, the design
team spends its time developing an archetype.

10 11

Internal trend research and inspirational field
trips determine the direction of the products
design by exploring design and CMF (colour,
material, finishing) resources. Based on these
resources, the primary commercialisation
process then follows. In partnership with
engineers, the design team conducts viability
research. During this process, designers play a
vital role: developing a products 3D shape and
IP and examining the engine platform, with
the aim of delivering a high-quality product.
When designing the Galaxy S8, what
was most important to you? How it looks or
what it does?
For Samsung our goal is harmony. Ultimately
the Galaxy S8 is a device that balances form,
function and feel. So the technical advances
of the almost bezel-free display and the user-
experience interface combine with the organic,
nature-inspired shape and the material
qualities of metal and glass.
What was the inspiration for
the Galaxy S8s Liquid Shade colours?
When drops of water pass through sunlight,
In pursuit of seamless design:
early sketches for the Galaxy S8
they act as a prism and change colour.
Similarly, the curved glass on the Galaxy S8
acts almost like a prism, creating a variety
of Liquid Shade.
How critical is technological innovation
to the Galaxy S8?
The design team had the concept for the
Infinity Display several years ago. But its only
now, with our technological advances in both
glass and OLED and huge investment in
manufacturing, that we can create a device
as progressive as the Galaxy S8. Via continuous
communication between designers and
engineers, weve developed special forming
technologies for the glass, CNC machines
for the body parts and new plastic-injection
technologies. The factory machines are
as advanced as the device itself.
Hyun Yeul Lee discusses UX design in
the Galaxy S8.
How did the physical design of the phone
inspire the user interface?
Due to the Galaxy S8s innovative shape and
12
dimensions, the starting point in our design
journey was to bridge the gap between the
physical and the digital. In removing the
tactility of a physical Home button, we created
a digital iteration as a graphic symbol to tap
on. We took into account the users continuous
interaction pattern behaviour, and the
responsive and intuitive nature of soft keys
and their roles in different contexts. The
design of the navigation bar had a direct
impact on how we thought about the
identity of our holistic phone experience.
How is the visible language radically
different from before?
One of our keywords when developing the
Galaxy S8 was progressive. This reflected
the wants and needs of our users, while also
reinforcing our design legacy and thinking
about how we could refine it. Our visual
language from the graphics to the interaction
flows and motion design were conceived to
create an elegant and timeless personality
that is distinct from our competitors. Starting
with the Always On Display (AOD), we used
13
Jaemyoung Lee, Nari Kim, Hyosang Bang,
Deonhee Kyung, Youngseong Kim,
Seungwook Nam, Hyun Yeul Lee, Jay Lee,
Unjoo Oh, Seockhyun Yu, Martin Jung .
Image courtesy of Samsung
colour to make a visible connection to the rest
of the phone experience. Our infinity wallpaper
from AOD to Lockscreen to Home, is structured
so that it embodies one continuous user
experience. Throughout the phone, our
iconography has been modernised to
move forward with our brand identity.
Do you think that you have created the
perfect user experience?
One of the key factors in measuring the
success of our UX design was to define our
intent to bridge the user needs with the
phones physical design. We wanted to
empower our users to focus on the things that
really mattered to them. Our intent is reflected
in the user interaction flow and the overall
aesthetic expression of the interface. Frankly
there is no right way to design a perfect user
experience due to the complexity of the
relationship between the user and the
device. However the feedback from our
users continues to inspire and guide our
UX designers in the right direction.
Crafting
the Future
Photography by Yasuyuki Takagi

ABOVEThe robot arms

developed by Samsung At Samsungs
state-of-the-art factory,
help to automate the
CNC machining process
OPPOSITEA vacuum-
evaporation coating is
applied to the screen to
the phone of the future
prevent fingerprints on
the glass is brought to life by hand
and machine

14 15
ABOVEHardware keys and OVERLEAF LEFTThe crafted glass
display screens are tested exterior is scrupulously examined
for durability in Samsungs to verify the quality
Quality Assurance lab OVERLEAF RIGHTThe Galaxy S8
OPPOSITEInside the screen glass undergoes a precision
anodising facility, water-droplet test
the Galaxy S8s metal frame
is tinted and strenghtened

16 17
18 19
 A harmonious balance
of beautiful design,
technical elegance and
intuitive usability.
The Galaxy S8 is the very
essence of a smartphone
redefined.

Images courtesy of Samsung

20 21
24
26 27
28
30
33
34 35
36 37
More Than
a Phone
Photography by Phil Dunlop

The Samsung Galaxy

Eco-system redefines and
enhances what a phone can
do. Experience the world in a
new way, beyond restrictions
and limits. Life in 360
38 39
40 41
43
44 45
46 47
39 Samsung Gear VR 40 Samsung Galaxy S8
with controller

42 The Samsung Galaxy Eco-system 44 Samsung Galaxy S8

45 Samsung Gear 360 46 Samsung Galaxy S8

48 49
 Immerse
Yourself

The Infinity Display of the

Galaxy S8 has a gorgeous
end-to-end screen that
spills over the phones
sides, forming a completely
smooth and continuous
surface with no bumps or
angles. Just pure, pristine,
uninterrupted glass

50 51
The sleek, light-reflecting
surface takes up the
entire front of the phone
and flows seamlessly into
the aluminium shell.
The result is a beautifully curved, perfectly
symmetrical singular object that looks almost
more like a piece of modern art than a phone,
and feels great in your hand. Samsung drew
from decades of learning and leadership in
display technology to engineer this exquisite
new form.
Vital input from existing Samsung users
was also key to solving the conceptual dilemma
known as the paradox of size. People want a
bigger screen, but they dont necessarily want
a bigger phone.
All but eliminating the bezel frame on the
device was the answer. To do this, the design
team had to revisit a question that it first asked
when introducing the revolutionary edge display
back in 2015.

52 53
 If bezels confine us, why have they been impossible
to eliminate for so many years? Because they are
critical on the inside, creating space for wiring and
other components.
The solution to this problem had to come
from within. Instead of trying to compress everything
behind the display, Samsung reorganised the layout
of the phones interior and made each individual
component smaller. The result is the biggest, most
immersive screen ever seen on a mobile device
of this size.

The smartphone
reimagined from
the inside out.

54 55
 Being Iconic
Developing the Galaxy S8s
visual language has been ABOVEWayfinding with OPPOSITE AND BELOWSketches for

a process of elegant reduction the navigation keys for Home,

Back and Recents
the Light and Line concept that inspired
the line-type UX iconography

and graphic evolution for the

Samsung UX Innovation team

The design of the Galaxy S8 user experience

began with a philosophy: to provide a seamless
interaction between the physical and the digital
space. Samsung wanted hardware and software
to be one continuous product experience for the
user. This experience is characterised by how
instantaneous and cooperative the device will
be over time. The idea is to build a partnership
between the device and the user in all ways.
Seamless navigation
Every physical detail of the phone has inspired
the visual language for the UX (user experience)
interface. The Home, Back and Recents keys are
integral to the users navigation of the phone.
Therefore, elements already familiar to users were
incorporated to ensure immediate understanding
and an intuitive user experience. The design of the
Galaxy S8s navigation soft keys is the cognitive

56 57
 To differentiate the UX identity further,
Samsung applied the Light and Line
concept across the entire interface from
the navigation soft keys and iconography
to the numerical typeface. Scaleable line-
bridge between hardware and software that type iconography allows us to adapt the
is inspired by the industrial design of the phone icons as UI advances until they eventually
itself. The one is subtly echoing the other. become animated. The days of the dull,
A new iconography flat icon are definitely numbered.
In order to formulate a visual language for Unlocking the user experience
the Galaxy S8, Samsung took the organic lines A users first encounter with the phone will
and curves of the device as the foundation. begin with the Always On Display or Lock
The UX Team collaborated with legendary Screen. The engineering innovations that
design studio Pentagram on the development Samsung has developed to lower power
of the Light and Line concept. Rather than consumption and strengthen security have
thinking about the icon as a block and sculpting created additional layers before the user
something out of it, we thought about enters the Home Screen.
folding a single line and cutting away at that, From an experienceperspective,
Pentagram explains. We wanted it to be Samsung did not want users to feel
more ethereal. burdened by having to pass through these
58
multiple layers each time. Employing
motion language, visual elements were
animated across the layers to make it one
seamless and continuous user experience.
Re-thinking the Home Screen
Often taken for granted by the user, Home
Screens are typically populated with pre-
installed applications. Samsung felt that
these created visual clutter and also made
assumptions about how users would
organise their screen space. The Samsung UX
Teams solution was to simplify the default
screen to create a Clean Home Concept
that would give the user control to create an
environment that suits their individual needs.
59
Introducing the App Tray
Samsung has created the App Tray to
add clarity to the user experience. It is
architecturally distinguished from the Home
Screen for ease of access. An input gesture
was devised that enables the user to switch
instantly between apps. It can perform
consistently across different form factors
and be controlled with a single hand.
Samsungs new UX system has also been
conceived so it can be used in any future
Galaxy device, regardless of its size.
ABOVEThe journey from
Always on Display to the new
App Tray and Home Screen
CONTRIBUTIONS from
Hyun Yeul Lee, Ph.D.,
UX Design Group 1 Leader and
In-Sil Han, Senior Designer
 Beyond
Design
To celebrate the Galaxy S8
as a product at the cutting edge
of technological and aesthetic
innovation, Wallpaper* invited
design writers, commentators
and thinkers to respond to the
concepts that inspired it
60
Wallpaper* Bespoke Editor
Simon Mills considers the notion of
neutrality: how contemporary design
must meet the challenge of working
seamlessly across our increasingly
connected and globalised world.
Kevin Braddock looks at how oneness
between user and product is becoming
a critical factor in our demanding
consumer environment.
Focusing on the quality of
essence, Alice Rawsthorn asks
what makes a design both useful
and beautiful in a modern context.
Nick Compton ponders the
invisible elements of harmony and
balance that draw us to a particular
products design.
61
Neutrality
Simon Mills
Bespoke Editor at Wallpaper*
Marshall McLuhan was a true
visionary. Way back in the early
1960s, long before the advent
of the internet, instant
communication, social media
and e-commerce, the Canadian-
born professor, philosopher
and media commentator coined
the term, the global village.
Writing in his 1962 book
The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making
of Typographic Man, McLuhans
term boldly predicted a world
driven by electronic technology,
united by the lightning-fast
conveyance of information.
Instead of a vast and disparate
planet of individual nations,
he predicted a hyper-connected
global village. There are no
boundaries in a global village, he
wrote. All problems will become
so intimate as to be ones own.
McLuhan actually seems
to have forecast the invention
of the world-wide web, the home
computer and the smartphone
as tools of social and commercial
revolution. As he said, The next
medium, whatever it is it may
be the extension of consciousness
will include television as its
content, not as its environment,
and will transform television
into an art form. A computer as
a research and communication
instrument could enhance
retrieval, obsolesce mass
library organisation, retrieve
the individuals encyclopedic
62
Technology is unifying
societies and cultures
and breaking down borders
on a global scale
function and flip into a private line to
speedily tailored data of a saleable kind.
For extension of consciousness read
internet. For genius, think McLuhan.
Fast forward 50 years or so,
and technology is unifying societies and
cultures and breaking down borders on
a global scale, and at speeds that would
surprise even a visionary like McLuhan.
There is absolutely, matter-of-factly,
verifiably, no isolation in the world
today, says Parag Khanna, author of
Connectography: Mapping the Future of
Global Civilisation, arguing that the world
is now defined less by countries and
more by connectivity. There is no place
in the world you cant get to or that
there arent the modern trappings of
technology, he adds. Similarly, cyber-
theorist Richard A. Spinello believes that
territorial borders and boundaries have
been rendered irrelevant by technology.
The internet is oblivious to geography as
it mechanically transmits digital data
hence its ability to cross borders, break
down barriers and destroy distance.
The impact of technology on our
lives has been nothing less than seismic.
Boundaries between different nations,
communities, businesses, professions,
entertainment platforms and disciplines
have started to blur.
We are beginning to see traditional
both novelty and technological
ways of working replaced by innovative
new practices.
Global hot-desking. Agile working.
The interconnection of internet-
embedded, everyday objects, enabling
them to send and receive data.
After more than a century of
electric technology, we have extended
our central nervous system itself in
a global embrace, abolishing both
space and time as far as our planet is
concerned, wrote McLuhan in his
keynote essay, Understanding Media.
In cyberspace, physical distance is even
The neutral designs that Samsung
less of a hindrance to the real-time
produces naturally integrate design factors
communicative activities of people.
and harmonise with you,
The idea of a unified global community
is fostered. Across s global village,
neighbourhoods are transcended.
Community networks stretch across
cities, nations and oceans.
With borders defied, barriers broken
down and neighbourhoods transcended,
and the rapid movement of information a
norm, the global village is influencing the
way we think about design. Neutrality
64
the sense of an object conceived to be instinctive and effortless simplicity
free of negative connotation, without that can be instantly understood by
prioritising specific regions, ages, or the whole planet.
gender is rapidly becoming a buzzword The role of the modern designer
in the design world. in todays global village, says Minhyouk
In the past, fancy, mechanical Lee, is not to create an ingenious and
designs were considered to demonstrate fancy design, but to pioneer a new way.
A neutrality of design that is beautiful,
innovation, explains Samsung Mobile simple, useful and comfortable to
Design Team Leader Minhyouk Lee. In everyone, everywhere. Accordingly,
addition, many languages were needed Samsung has sought to create new
in the design for a highly segmented values by thinking differently from the
customer base. In an era of connection, previous product designs. These new
the whole world has become more unified values focus on emotional connection
across the board, boundaries have started rather than just high technology. With
to blur across a variety of fields, and new the Galaxy S8 we have created a device
experiments to replace typical standards that harmonises with the surrounding
have been popping up. Instead of environment of the users and gives them
technical factors, consumers are looking a new experience.
for designs that highlight familiarity and
comfort in their daily lives.
whoever you are, wherever you are, and
however you use them. Neutral designs
are flexible and strong.
The removal of the longstanding
industry-standard home key on
the Galaxy S8, for instance, could be
regarded as a bold statement of both
minimalism and design neutrality,
uniting the global user experience via
65
Oneness
Kevin Braddock
is a Berlin-based design writer
and embedded storyteller
Art and technology have
long served human needs by
making sense of complexity and
imposing unity on the chaos of
nature. How does design do
the same today, surrounded by
ever-accelerating complexity?
Its worth looking beyond those
disciplines for clues.
Philosophers have long
understood the deep human
desire for unity: the yearning
for a oneness not only between
the individual and a deity, but
also between the individual and
the world he or she inhabits,
along with a kind of unity within
themselves. Thinkers in the
philosophical and psychoanalytic
traditions, from Pascal to Freud,
Jung, Klein and Lacan, have
all in their various ways stressed
a human search for unity with
something or someone else,
whether that is an object, a deity
or a person.
These questions have a
growing relevance today when
disunity seems to be the defining
characteristic of life when
alienation is common, and social
disconnection and atomisation
increasingly the norm. Meaning
has undergone a destabilisation in
the postmodern (and supposedly
post-truth) era.
The grand narratives that
once offered some coherence to
20th-century lives have collapsed,
while in the everyday
66
Art may once have helped
to make sense of the world,
but increasingly it falls
to design to fulfil that role
experiential sense, our perceptions
are often fragmented and disoriented,
assaulted by media, information,
narrative, data, disruption and change.
Under these conditions, its easy to
arrive at sudden moments of existential
fear and trembling, the kind first
articulated by Kierkegaard and later,
rather more lyrically, by David Byrne
in Talking Heads existential disco
classic, Once in a Lifetime, where the
subject asks, Well, how did I get here?
All of this falls into greater relief
because technology is constantly
accelerating the pace of change, often
way ahead of our ability to understand
and adapt to the effect it has on our lives.
Art may once have helped to make sense
of the world, but increasingly it falls
to design to fulfil that role, especially
when much of the chaos we experience
is a result of technological complexity.
Can design help return us to a
prelapsarian state of oneness?
Certainly, the growing importance
of design underlines its vital role in
bridging the gap between humans
and technology. Designs genius is to
render technology human, making it
empathetic, haptic, and humanistic
think of digital services that optimise
health and prevent illness, objects that
maximise productivity and experience,
design can be interpreted as the experience
and systems facilitating smooth travel
of radical simplicity
by air, road and rail.
But while seamlessness and smoothness
have long been aspirations, those aspirations
havent always been met.
Think of the knots of wiring under
desks and TVs, unsightly docking
stations and poorly functioning ticket
machines: these things show that design
has plenty more work to do to make our
technology more pleasant and liveable.
Technologists have long accepted
that interfaces should function so well
that they are virtually invisible.
As long ago as 1966 the Italian
design visionary Bruno Munari
prophesied that, as design became
increasingly democratic, designers would
have to take on the role once occupied
by artists. Munari wrote, Culture today
is becoming a mass affair, and the artist
must step down from his pedestal and be
prepared to make a sign for a butchers
shop (if he knows how to do it). The artist
has to regain the modesty he had
when art was just a trade, and instead
68
of despising the very public he is trying of the book can stand as a benchmark
to interest he must rediscover its needs against which to test future innovations
and make contact with it again. This is in design and technology. After all, its
the reason why the traditional artist endured practically unchanged for five
is being transformed into the designer. centuries or more, and changed the
world at the same time as cohering it.
Ultimately, perhaps oneness in
Oneness equals a sense of unity.
It is a design concept that unifies users
by finding the perfect balance between
of the kind characterised by two art and technology. Oneness seeks to
examples of older technology. As a first blend naturally into its environment
example, cyclists know that when their by focusing on the core essence.
bodies synchronise with their bicycle,
they experience a wondrous sensation of
movement, where rider and bicycle cease
to be separate and merge into a single
dynamic process an experience thats
athletic, aesthetic and functional all at
the same time.
The second example is what you are
holding in your hands right now. A book
is a brilliant example of unity of design,
ergonomics and technology.
Without any internet connectivity,
gameplay, messaging, photography or
accelerometer, the books simple binding
together of pages printed with words and
images adds up to a delivery interface
which seamlessly achieves what its
supposed to do: unify author with reader,
contain a narrative and look good on
the bookshelf as well.
I dont believe that its backward-
looking to claim that the radical oneness
69
Essence
Alice Rawsthorn
writes about design for the
International New York Times
Dont make something unless
it is both necessary and useful,
but if it is both necessary and
useful, dont hesitate to make
it beautiful, was the defining
design principle of the Shakers,
the radical religious sect that fled
from persecution in England to
build a new life in the United
States during the 18th century.
After being imprisoned for
six months upon arrival, the
Shakers travelled around the
East Coast recruiting converts.
They then constructed over
20 communities in remote
locations, where they were free
to live as they wished, subsisting
on the land. Every aspect of
those communities was designed
from scratch, including the
rules and customs, as well as the
buildings and their contents,
to reflect the Shakers modesty,
purity and their belief in equality
and pacifism.
Today, the Shakers are
best known for their exquisitely
simple wooden furniture, yet
their design innovations also
included a circular saw, fire
engine, washing machine and
the other tools they needed to
be self-sufficient. Make every
product better than its ever been
done before, began their design
philosophy. Make the parts you
cannot see as well as the parts
you can see. Use only the best
materials, even for the most
70
Beauty is as potent as ever,
but the process of creating it,
and our expectations of it,
have transformed over time
everyday items. Give the same attention
to the smallest detail as you do to the
largest. Design every item you make to
last for ever.
The Shakers invented this
philosophy instinctively, but applied it
with such sensitivity and ingenuity that,
centuries later, they remain role models
of design. Critically, they recognised
that the most important element of
any design project is its essence: the
combination of qualities that define its
impact on us. Identifying those qualities,
and how they relate to one another, is
fiendishly complex, not least because our
perceptions of them change at different
times and in different contexts.
Which qualities are most important in
determining the essence of design now?
Two design qualities beloved of the
Shakers have remained indispensable:
necessity and usefulness.
If a signage system is illegible or
a smartphones operating software is
bafflingly over-complicated, they will
prove useless and will fail, regardless of
any design merits they may have. Take
the Valentine typewriter, which was
designed for Olivetti in Italy by Ettore
Sottsass and Perry King in 1969. It looks
like a perfect pop object: sexy, playful
and optimistic. But the Valentine was
dogged by technical flaws and sold so
poorly that Olivetti stopped production
after 18 months. As the US artist Donald
products become, the more important
Judd, who designed and made most of
it is that we are able to operate them easily
the contents of his own homes in the
and instinctively.
improvisational Shaker spirit, put it: If a
chair is not functional, if it appears to
be only art, it is ridiculous. (Judd wrote
those words in 1993 for the aptly entitled
essay, Its hard to find a good lamp.)
As for beauty, the third design
quality prized by the Shakers, it too is as
potent as ever, but the process of creating
it, and our expectations of it, have
transformed over time.
Throughout the industrial
age, beauty in design was generally
interpreted from a visual perspective,
and the physical appearance of most
buildings and objects was determined by
their intended function in accordance
with the principle coined by the US
architect Louis Sullivan in 1896 as form
ever follows function.
The visual aspects of design can
be as seductive as ever, but need not
necessarily relate to functionality.
72
Thanks to relentless advances in the
speed and storage capacity of computers,
a tiny smartphone can now pack more
computing power than a gigantic
bulldozer; and neither the size, nor
any other physical attribute of a digital
device need betray the slightest hint of
what it does, or how you might use it.
The smaller yet more complex these
Talented software designers, like
Loren Brichter, the US programmer
who devised the pull to refresh
application with which millions of in her films.
us locate new emails and texts, have
enabled us to do so by devising ingenious
ways of enabling us to activate countless
functions from our compact phone
and tablet screens.
As a result, the devices themselves
have been able to become ever subtler
and more minimal in form. We know
instinctively that the simpler the
physical structure of an object appears
to be, the more difficult the design
challenge of wrestling with the laws of
physics to make it look so light, sleek
and unobtrusive must have been. That
knowledge makes the object seem more
impressive and appealing, even though
we know that its apparent simplicity
73
disguises the baffling complexity of
the technology hidden inside it.
The screens of the most formally
sophisticated digital devices now act
as blank canvases that we can customise
by filling them with apps and images,
thereby satisfying the growing desire
to personalise our possessions.
Glancing at another persons phone
screen can reveal as much about them
as reading an intimate passage in their
diary or scouring a private Instagram
feed. The German artist Wolfgang
Tillmans has depicted this brilliantly
in his photographs of digital interfaces,
as has the French artist Camille Henrot
Our experience of stroking,
prodding and sliding the icons on our
digital screens has also made us more
sensitive to the power and sensual
pleasure of touch, and therefore to
designs tactile possibilities, which are
increasingly important components
of its essence.
All of these qualities have redefined
our expectations of beauty in design.
The more sophisticated we have become
at decoding design, the more important
it is that we feel comfortable with
whatever we discover as a result. Those
observations are as critical in defining
the essence of design today as necessity
and usefulness were to the Shakers.
Harmony
Nick Compton
is Senior Contributing Editor at Wallpaper*
The British artist Conrad
Shawcross is obsessed with
harmony. Not some vague
and woolly notion of beauty
in balance, but hard-core
harmony, the harmony of hidden
numbers, secret chords, ratios
and intervals. Shawcross, the
youngest member of Britains
Royal Academy and the art star
of the moment, is a self-confessed
maths geek. He makes mostly
large-scale, complex sculptures,
often with moving parts, but
always in elegant, elliptical ways,
and always generated, in part,
by beautiful numbers. Last year
his sculpture, Paradigm, was
installed outside the Francis
Crick Institute in Kings Cross,
London. The piece is essentially
a twisting, turning stack of
tetrahedral steel blocks that
increase in size by ten per cent
at every twist. It is 14 metres tall,
as tall as it can be without falling
over without hidden support.
As a child, Shawcross hung
out in the Science Museums
mathematics gallery, and would
later become the museums Artist
in Residence. As a young man
he became obsessed with an odd
but beguiling little book called
Harmonograph: A Visual Guide
to the Mathematics of Music.
The book starts with the story
of Pythagoras discovery of
harmonic ratios after listening
to the clang of a blacksmiths
74
Number-generated patterns
and forms have become
a feature of modern design
and architecture
anvil; and eventually of octaves,
unison, perfect fifths and major thirds.
But the book is mostly a collection
of remarkable, beautiful diagrams:
repeating swirls, loops, twists and
sinusoids, a complex but elemental
geometry which seems to exist in three
dimensions, if not more, created by
a Victorian scientific gadget called a
harmonograph. Initially a research
tool but later adopted for home
entertainment, the harmonograph uses
swinging and adjustable pendulums to
push pens and create patterns based on
different harmonic intervals.
For Shawcross, these intervals and
ratios, and the patterns they generate,
are things to be pushed and played with,
but always to be respected. He has used
them in many of his works, including
a giant new piece to be installed in
Londons St Pancras railway station,
which is intended to beguile departing
and arriving travellers for the next year.
These number-generated patterns
and forms though generated by far
more complex machinery than the
harmonograph have become a feature
of modern design and architecture,
with swooping curves and organic blobs
that mirror natural forms, growth and
erosion. Shawcross, though, is rather
sceptical about architecture enabled by
modern computer design programs such
as Rhino, built on algorithms that pay
little attention to the fundamentals of
mathematical harmony.
Art, design and architecture, after all,
each have their own harmonic mathematics
such as the Golden Ratio, the Golden
Rectangle and the Fibonacci sequence.
The concrete poetry of these
numerical systems were magical for
Le Corbusier, a founding father of
architectural Modernism and arguably
the most important and influential
architect of the 20th century.
Le Corbusier used these numbers,
than using certain ratios.
which he called rhythms apparent
to the eye, to build up the beautiful
proportions of the buildings he created.
These rhythms are at the very root
of human activities, he wrote.
They resound in man by an organic
inevitability, the same fine inevitability
which causes the tracing out of the
Golden Section by children, old men,
savages and the learned. People see
the Golden Ratio in everything from
76
the Parthenon in Athens to a fast-food
logo, whether it is actually there or not.
And there are plenty ready to debunk
the idea. Keith Devlin, a professor
of mathematics at Stanford University,
told Fast Company magazine: Were
genetically programmed to see patterns
and to seek meaning. People think they
see the Golden Ratio around them, in
the natural world and the objects they
love, but they cant actually substantiate
it. They are victims of their natural
desire to find meaning in the pattern of
the universe, without the maths skills
to tell them that the patterns they think
they see are illusory.
The larger point is that there is
maths in the universe, both the natural
and the man-made. And that there is
also a desire for a kind of perfect balance
and harmony.
Harmony in design is about far more
Truly harmonious design may not have
to be as rooted in complex maths as
music does, but it still has to register
as fundamentally right; to resonate in
ways we may not understand, but feel.
In product design there is an extra
dimension to harmony, which lies in
the core relationship between form and
function. One does not have to blindly
follow the other, but there does
77
have to be a connection, a ringing true.
Harmonious design sometimes means
ignoring recent advances in materials
or other technologies. There are issues
of weight and balance. Harmonious
design is felt as much as seen... and
harmony has to be designed in and
built in.
It is in the perfectly curved corner,
the perfectly milled edge, the seamless
transition from one material to another.
And it has to be there when software
meets hardware. It is there when a digital
font echoes a hardware form, and when
functionality is offered and laid out in
a perfectly logical way.
As Keith Devlin says, we look for
harmony and balance in things. We may
not understand the maths, but we know
it when we see it. It is also true that
purity and exactness are not always what
we are looking for. A synthesiser can
generate a pure note, a single frequency,
but it is nowhere near as exciting as the
twang of an electric guitar or a crashing
piano chord, with their resonances and
overtones and even their dissonances.
Harmony is, after all, about more than
just numbers.
Spectrum
Photography by Leandro Farina

Selected by Wallpaper*
this series of hand-crafted
objects represents
contemporary glass and
metal design at its most
elegant and tactile.
A lustrous colour palette
reflects the unique aesthetic
of the Galaxy S8

Midnight Black

78
Coral Blue
Maple Gold
Arctic Silver
Orchid Gray
 Open
Photography by Marius W. Hansen

01 Midnight Black 02 Coral Blue

03 Maple Gold 04 Arctic Silver

05 Orchid Gray

88 89
It starts with a box.
Expectation. Promise.
Ritual. Ceremony.
Packaging is a vessel, a way of signifying a brand,
conveying individuality and transporting memories.
Perhaps the most explicit demonstration of its emotional
role is the art of un-boxing. This online fascination
focuses on the act of opening packaging, combining the
tactile pleasure of print and material with the physical
act of opening, unfolding and removing.

Barely a decade old, the un-boxing trend brings the

sting of envy, as well as the impossibility of recreating the
delightful precision of new packaging.

Unlike the pleasure garnered from wrapping,

gifting, and then watching the giftee unwrap and discover,
the pleasure of this new pursuit is often vicarious and
primarily solitary its a one-shot deal. Its also a ritual
of several stages and emotions.
First the engineered cardboard is set in place in
front of the un-boxer. Its monolithic architecture hard
lines and immaculately fused corners lying still and
inanimate for a few moments of quiet veneration. The lid
is carefully lifted. The satisfying, frictional suck of tightly
packed paper stock is an audible and physical signifier
of quality. Once removed, the contents are revealed.
The heady aroma of factory-fresh newness fills the
air for a few seconds. Meticulously packed compartments
of design candy and technological joy are unpacked with
deferential choreography. One by one, constituent
elements are gently prised from their moulded beds,
shelves and cubbyholes. The hero product is laid out next
to its smaller auxiliaries. A power cable folded into perfect
loops. Headphones, clean and sculptural. Protective layers
are peeled away. Little polythene bags are eased open.
With the un-boxing ritual now complete, a gratifying sigh
may be heard off-camera.

91
92
Images courtesy of Samsung

93
After the box enjoys this transcendental moment,
where next?
How about this for a theory...
Does the thrill and sense of anticipation that the
un-boxing ceremony delivers really have to be a brief,
one-shot deal? Could the next step on its journey be a
replication of the un-boxed experience with the actual
product it houses? The creation of a device designed
to provide a near-continuous sense of thrilling discovery,
newness and expectation?
With quality and revelation central to our
understanding and enjoyment of the modern world, and
with the emotions of the un-boxing ceremony as a key
reference, devices can be conceived to provide pleasure,
a continual sense of anticipation and delight that goes
way beyond technical capability.

Perhaps this is a
newwayto think
outside the box.

94 95
 CREDITS

FOR WALLPAPER* BESPOKE

Bespoke EditorSimon Mills
Bespoke Art DirectorAneel Kalsi
DesignersSimon Kinneir, Marine Duroselle
Bespoke ExecutiveLloyd Lindo
ProducerCarly Gray Production
Sub-editorChristopher Stocks

FORWARD THINKING,
CRAFTING THE FUTURE
PhotographerYasuyuki Takagi

MORE THAN A PHONE

PhotographerPhil Dunlop

BEYOND DESIGN
Writer, NeutralitySimon Mills
Writer, OnenessKevin Braddock
Writer, EssenceAlice Rawsthorn
Writer, HarmonyNick Compton
SPECTRUM
PhotographerLeandro Farina
Interiors & StylingMaria Sobrino
OPEN
PhotographerMarius W. Hansen
WriterJonathan Bell
Set DesignAnnette Masterman
Copyright Samsung 2017
All rights reserved. No part of
this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopy, recording or any
other information storage or retrieval
system, without prior permission
in writing from the publisher.
samsung.com

96 97
 A new
silhouette
that
transcends
physical
boundaries
and un-boxes
the user
experience
 Oneness
in the
palm of
your hand