Gordon Bruce, as an industrial designer, homed in on the need for
Samsung to win over customers with products of beauty and quality. Peter,
as a marketer, focused on drawing customers in by stitching together a
coherent image that would encompass all of Samsung’s product catalog.
“Samsung needs to exceed customer expectations,” Bruce flatly said in
one of the meetings.
“Did you hear what Gordon just said? Exceed customer expectations!”
Peter proclaimed at the table, acting as a sort of cheerleader.
Gordon was uncomfortable; he felt that Arnell was trying to take credit
for his work and use his product portfolio for his own advertising.
“I refused to work with him after a while,” the designer told me. He was
turned off by Peter’s dominating personality.
Peter had a different recollection of events. He called the ArtCenter
designers “heroes.”
One day on a tour bus, Miky Lee’s hotline rang.
“It’s the chairman!” she exclaimed.
She listened closely, then hung up and turned back to her American
guests.
“We are summoned,” she announced. “You are going to be received by
the chairman at his home in Seoul.”
Returning to Seoul, the team was driven by an escort up the aerie of
hillside homes, approaching the chairman’s home overlooking the helter-
skelter cityscape from atop a quiet peak. Security guards opened the gates.
“We were immediately [struck] by the chairman’s very, very refined
taste,” Gordon told me. “What he had in Korea was nothing like the showy
mansions and gold-plated bathrooms [ultra-wealthy Americans had] back
home.”
This was something altogether different. The chairman had embraced
subtle, understated displays of beauty and wealth, devoid of garishness.
Every screen door, wooden fixture, and piece of furniture seemed to have
been carefully selected and put in just the right place. Clearly the chairman
had spent a lot of thought and time designing his home. Bruce and Miho
saw that he knew the principles of good design.
The team walked by the chairman’s monument to technology, a
towering sculpture of dozens of televisions by a famous modern South
Korean artist, Nam June Paik, before they came face-to-face with the