"Samsung has one of the biggest product line ups of any tech brand, yet when it comes to design, it's consistently seen as an "also-ran." While other companies have forged distinctive and instantly recognizable design languages, such as Nothing, Samsung has found itself behind in the style stakes. When you've got Apple as one of your biggest competitors, that's not a great position to be in."
"That's not to say there haven't been improvements in the last decade, and the occasional flashes of promise-most notable in its collaborations with external designers, like the Bouroullec brothers, who fashioned the Serif TV for the South Korean company. But that hasn't stopped complaints of boring and unoriginal design, both internally and externally, and an inertia when it has led, leaving other companies to close the gap."
"Being defined by performance over personality has hardly done Samsung's bottom line any harm-it recently regained its lead from Apple in global smartphone market share and has been the global leader in TVs for almost two decades. But, in 2025, it looks there's finally a clear desire from Samsung to bridge the gap between form and function, by giving design the focus it's been lacking for far too long at the company."
Samsung maintains a vast product lineup but has often been perceived as lacking a distinctive design language, trailing peers in style. Occasional collaborations, such as the Bouroullec brothers' Serif TV, produced promising work, yet complaints of boring, unoriginal design persisted internally and externally. Performance-focused decisions preserved market leadership in smartphones and TVs, but a 2025 shift shows intent to prioritize design. Samsung appointed Mauro Porcini as its first chief design officer; Porcini brings over 20 years of design leadership from 3M and PepsiCo and a recent global rebrand for Pepsi. Significant organizational work remains.
Read at WIRED
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