WIKIMEDIA COMMONSThe taegeuk symbol on the South Korean flag.“I thought that might be something that could really resonate with them,
and it would be an easier sell [to Samsung’s designers] because they would
appreciate what we’re talking about,” Hardy said. “Every Samsung product
should be harmonious with a certain philosophy to include both the rational
and emotional....It has to work. It also has to look good. It has to resonate
with people.”
Hardy also zeroed in on a new design slogan for Samsung: “Balance of
Reason and Feeling.”
Reason and feeling, in his view, were a taegeuk for the technology
world.
The slogan stuck; it reflected Samsung’s identity seamlessly. The
company embraced a two-pronged strategy, strengthening its consumer
products while simultaneously churning out more and better chips, screens,
and components behind the scenes.
Reason versus feeling, product versus brand, tradition versus modernity,
a dynastic chairman versus the freewheeling world of technology. Samsung
became an empire of dualities, in a constant struggle to find unity between
its opposites and among its disparate offices, people, and products. The
Silicon Valley firms, focused on narrower product lines, avoided such
intense internal conflict.
Samsung’s design office, looking to globalize its products, was sending