The best designers of the red dot design award 2007 in interview: Taeho Kim, Yongsang Jang and Baek-ki Kim

The panel of experts awarded Samsung red dot: best of the best title for its innovative portable LMD-10A51W DMB television. We spoke to the desigenrs Taeho Kim, Yongsang Jang and Baek-ki Kim about the plan behind this product.

What inspired you to create this particular product and what was the intention behind it?

I was inspired by food carefully presented on a white porcelain plate – how the curves of the porcelain plate felt when it touched and rested on the palm of my hands. I knew instantly to bring this sensual experience in to the hard and technical world of digital products.

There is a need to create a portable TV that could fit in diverse environments such as the kitchen, bed room, living room and outdoors. Also to enjoy multimedia contents whenever and wherever. Thus, the form factor and configuration of the product was decided.

What does being awarded with the “red dot: best of the best” mean to you?

Even though this is not a high cost product, the design gave the TV a higher emotional value that is priceless and I believe that the panels of the Red Dot Design Awards recognized this.

What particular challenges do you think designers have to face these days?

Designers these days face the challenges of having to create good quality design, consistently, in a short period of time due to an evermore competitive market and improvements in new technology. Thus, designers have to find ways to stay inspired at all times in order to stay in shape.

As a designer, what would you still like to accomplish in the future?

I want to create and iconic design classic that will become a permanent collection at design museums world-wide.

What do you think is the economic significance of design?

When talking about marketing we often mention “maximum profit from minimum cost” – I believe design is the ultimate tool in achieving this goal.

Many good designs bring in financial fortune but also creates intangible socio-cultural values.

Private view – communication and design

Today people prefer to watch their favourite programs on their own – thus the abundance of media information has also changed our social reality and today the television is part of an individual and mobile lifestyle. The portable LMD-10A51W DMB television interprets this mobile attitude towards watching television in an inspiring manner. Through innovative technology and its clear design, it imparts a new lightness of TV-watching whenever and wherever one happens to be. Featuring a 10” screen for clear images and based on DMB technology, one can enjoy high-quality broadcast anywhere, entirely independent of cables or other connections, even outside the home. In order to make the television suitable for multimedia usage, it has also been equipped with MP3 as well as digital photo viewer functions, and when connected via an insert to an external HDD interface it can display other kinds of data as well. This device thus closes the existing gap between a portable television and a laptop. New and interesting in the appearance of this television is its body: it features smooth flowing lines and surfaces that seamlessly join together. The body is made of white porcelain-like material with surfaces that have been refined through double injection and high-gloss injection, thus lending this television a friendly and fresh appearance. Another consistent element of its form is the stand, which can be detached to easily move the television and install it in a different place.