11月08日
The Seoul of Design
Samsung has transformed itself into a red-hot global brand by opening to the outside world—and looking deep within its Korean heart
Defining an identity
Samsung’s in-house school gave its designers the tools and confidence to risk thinking differently. But there remained a vexing challenge: The company lacked a measurable, clearly defined set of principles that its designers could replicate and its customers could understand. Samsung’s instinct was to develop a design language that grew out of Korean culture. But that proved hard to define. China’s Han, Ming and Tang dynasties, as well as the Mongols, Russians, Japanese and even American missionaries had all left elements of their cultures on the peninsula. Unearthing a true Korean character proved difficult, but Samsung discovered it in the symbol found on the South Korean flag that represents the simultaneous unity and duality of all things. From this, Samsung developed its touchstone: “Balance of Reason and Feeling.”
A task force spent a year developing and perfecting a scale, with reason at one end and feeling on the other. This is now used to ensure that every single product design hews to Samsung’s brand positioning.
Samsung has come a long way
Today, Samsung has come a long way from its humble, homely past. The consulting outfit Interbrand calculates that it’s the world’s fastest-growing brand over the past five years: Samsung is now the world leader in CDMA cell phones; it’s battling Motorola for the number-two spot, behind Nokia, in total handsets sold; it also tops the global markets for color televisions, flash memory and LCD panels—key battlegrounds in its quest to one day dominate the digital era. In 2004, Samsung racked up $10.3 billion in earnings on $55.3 billion in sales, which made it the world’s most profitable tech company. Back in its homeland, Samsung is greatly respected for its growth, its technological prowess, its 20.7% share of Korea’s total exports, and for transforming the tagline “made in Korea” into a source of pride. Samsung has, indeed, changed everything.
Vocabulary Focus
Vexing (adj) bothering
Measurable (adj) able to be measured
Missionary (n) 传教士
Unearth (v) to discover information, especially after careful searching
Unity (n) state of being one or a unit 一体
Duality (n) having two of something or two parts 双重
Touchstone (n) an established standard or principle by which something is judged 试金石
Hew (v) to follow closely or conform to something
Prowess (n) outstanding skill or ability
Discussion Question
It’s the last day of the three-day article, let’s do a summary.
Extra Exercise
1. Translate the following sentence into Chinese, ‘Unearthing a true Korean character proved difficult, but Samsung discovered it in the symbol found on the South Korean flag that represents the simultaneous unity and duality of all things. From this, Samsung developed its touchstone: “Balance of Reason and Feeling.”’
2. According to the recording, does ‘homely’ mean comfortable, just like living at home in today’s article?
说明：
1.文本摘自《Advanced 彭蒙惠英语》，由chandler30亲自录入。更多节目可访www.studioclassroom.com
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3.参考答案在二楼，回复可见。
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