South Korean manufacturer LG has been around for longer than you think--they produced their first transistor radio in 1958--but it's only recently that they've made a strong push into design.
Just after the company's current chief executive Nam Yong took the helm two years ago, LG Electronics--which embraces handsets and flat-screen TV businesses as its main cash-cows--has been transforming into a marketing- and design-driven consumer player.
"Annual allocation on budgets in design-related fields has continuously been increasing to strengthen our brand image," Jung Woo-sik, an LG spokesman said, Tuesday.
...LG has boosted more than 10 billion won in each of the past years in design. Meanwhile, the company has some 800 design staff members as of late last year, up from 600 in 2006, according to the company.
Of course, hiring designers alone is no panacea; without the right kinds of management in place, it will be hard for those designers to make any kind of meaningful progress. (The Big Three, after all, employed hundreds of designers between them around the world.)
"Many companies have designers, but they don't have design management," said an LG handset designer who asked only to be identified by her family name, Yoo, said. "Design needs to be managed, and there must be someone in the 'company hierarchy' who has the knowledge to manage design and set up the design language," according to the official.
In a virtual move to accelerate the design-management pitches, LG will open a new research & development (R&D) center in March on a tract of 125,000 square meters in Seoul's trendy district of Seocho-dong. The new building, which is the largest of LG's R& D institutes, will house some 3,000 R&D and design-related employees.
"Design and technology shouldn't be separated. LG has another springboard to introduce design- and function-focused products earlier by saving time and increasing efficiency," Hahm Young-ho, chief of the company's design center and in chare of mobile phones, said.
"Designers identify issues with existing products, and then think of solutions to solve these problems before designing a new product. If you are designing a camera, think about what is lacking in the cameras today. Think of what the new feature can offer everyone or certain target groups, try to solve their problems and consult with technicians right away," according to Hahm.
Read the full article on the subject here.
via korea times
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