Samsung’s new ‘eco-packaging’ made from eco-friendly corrugated cardboard will be applied to The Serif, The Frame and The Sero, allowing customers easier recycling as well as upcycling of the cardboard boxes for creative reuse.

Samsung has applied a dot matrix design on each side of its eco-friendly corrugated cardboard boxes, allowing customers to cut the boxes more easily and assemble them into various other uses, such as small end tables or houses for pets.

Included within the packaging is a manual to guide customers on how to make household items out of the cardboard boxes, which can be accessed by scanning the QR code on the box.

Owners of The Serif who tend to put shelves and furniture around the TV can build cat houses, magazine racks and even shelves from the cardboard boxes to store household items and electronic devices, including the remote control.

Earlier this year, Samsung had already won CES 2020 Innovation Awards for its eco-packaging concept for promoting the efficient use of resources.

As part of the rollout of the new eco-packaging, Samsung and Dezeen, a British lifestyle magazine, will hold a global design competition starting April 6^th, where the two companies will award the most unique and practical designs and will apply the designs into its eco-packaging manual.

“Consumers are more likely to purchase from a brand that shares similar fundamentals and values as they do, and with our eco-packaging, we believe that we can provide our customers with a new experience that considers the environment as an important way to express themselves,” said Kangwook Chun, Executive Vice President and Head of Product Strategy Team of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics.

For more information on the design competition, please visit Dezeen’s website at www.dezeen.com and Samsung TV Instagram(@samsungtv).

The Galaxy series is and always has been about forward-thinking innovation. Each new addition to Samsung’s signature lineup of mobile devices pushes the boundaries of what smartphones, tablets and wearables can do – streamlining more aspects of daily life by empowering users to do more.

On June 27, Samsung launched a competition to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Galaxy family – featuring $40,000 in prize money – that challenges designers around the world to dream up their own boundary-pushing Galaxy design. Read on to learn more about the Samsung Mobile Design Competition and how to enter.

What Is the Samsung Mobile Design Competition?

Held in collaboration with leading design magazine Dezeen, the Samsung Mobile Design Competition is a global contest that challenges contestants to come up with innovative ways for Galaxy devices to be utilized in the future.

The competition, which runs through August 4, is open to any and all designers (individuals, studios and students) and includes categories spanning both product and graphic design.

Those competing in the “Next Mobile +” product-design category will submit accessory designs for Galaxy smartphones, tablets and wearables (including the Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Buds) that take the mobile experience to the next level. Contestants competing in the “Next Mobile Wallpaper Paradigm” graphic-design category will submit visuals that take wallpaper design in a new direction by incorporating game-changing elements like interactivity and contextual awareness.

How Do I Enter?

Entering the contest is easy and may be done by visiting Dezeen’s official website, which includes full details on the competition, including submission instructions and prize information.

Those interested in entering the “Next Mobile +” product-design category should submit, among other items, their design files, as well as a full description of product’s concept, detailed information on its specifications and target audience, and renderings of lifestyle images (or videos) depicting it in use. Contestants competing in the “Next Mobile Wallpaper Paradigm” graphic-design category should submit, among other items, their final design – in image, video or APK file format – as well as still images of their design on various Galaxy devices, and an explanation of the idea behind it.

How Will the Winners Be Selected?

Submissions will be subjected to several rounds of evaluation, with only the best of the best entries advancing to the next stages.

Once the initial rounds are completed, the top five finalists in each category will present their ideas on September 25 before a panel of Samsung executives and well-known designers – including Erwan Bouroullec, one half of the famed furniture-design duo the Bouroullec brothers – who will select the contest’s first, second and third place winners.

The first-place winning individual or team in each category will take home the competition’s $10,000 grand prize. The second and third place winners will receive cash prizes totaling $5,000 and $3,000, respectively, with the remaining finalists earning honorable mention honors and $1,000 prizes.

Each of the top three winners will receive an invite to this year’s Samsung Developer Conference– held from October 29–30 in San Jose, California – where they’ll officially receive their awards. Mock-ups of the top five entries will also be featured at the conference.

Calling All Creators

The countdown’s officially on! If you think you’ve got a great idea for a game-changing Galaxy accessory or graphic design, submit your concept to Dezeen’s website by August 4 for a chance to win one of the competition’s top prizes.

Samsung Electronics has teamed up with leading design and architectural magazine Dezeen in a competition to find the next graphic imagery for the QLED TV’s ‘Ambient Mode.’ Open to designers and creatives worldwide, the judges invited shortlisted entrants to the final round of the competition at IFA, with the grand prize winner announced on August 31 in Berlin. The competition saw a myriad of entries from all over the globe, but only five were invited to IFA to showcase their designs in full.

Ambient Mode is the innovative feature of 2018 QLED TVs that transforms the traditionally black display of the ‘off’ screen into a dynamic, animated interior design feature. Ambient Mode can mimic the appearance of the wall it sits on while also conveying chosen imagery or information, such as the time or the weather.

The judges of this contest to find the next Ambient Mode design, including esteemed designer Neville Brody and Serif TV designer Erwan Bourollec, and Dontae Lee, Head of Samsung’s Corporate Design Center, were looking for designs that fit Ambient Mode’s mission to echo its environment and blend seamlessly into the aesthetic of user’s homes. “We weren’t looking for a design that was going to dominate or be too overpowering,” noted judge Neville Brody (pictured below). “The most important feature for us was whether or not the design could really make any environment warm and relaxing, just like Ambient Mode has been designed to do.”

The competition elicited a diverse and exciting range of creative responses to Ambient Mode. “The great thing about all the designs is the potential they all had to be completely customizable,” elaborated Brody. “From the objects or animals involved to the background design, all had the potential to be as personal to users as possible.” Choosing a winner from the five dynamic shortlisted designs was no easy feat, but it was Swift Creative’s design that “offered a level of detail you could get involved in, but at the same time stayed there as a very natural part of the environment,” explained Brody.

The judging panel believe that with these new designs, the QLED TVs and Ambient Mode offer users even more options to personalize and enhance not just their screens, but their living spaces, too.  “Samsung TVs today are truly beautiful,” affirmed Brody. “They are moving the display screen away from being just a piece of technology and towards something that fits more seamlessly into people’s lives. It is a tremendous opportunity for creatives and consumers alike.”

UK-based Swift Creative, the team behind winning design ‘Kinetic Decor’, was inspired by the family connotation of the mobile design as well as their Scandinavian roots. “Our design taps into the fundamental Scandinavian pleasures associated with everyday living and the simple comfort of relaxing at home with friends, using technology to support, not intrude on, this experience,” said Matthew Cockeril (pictured above).

Take a look at the five shortlisted designs in full below.

“Kinetic Decor”, Swift Creatives, UK

“Sphere”, Doisign, Turkey

“Bird Clock”, Jianshi Wu and Yitan Sun, USA

“Time Frame”, Alex Warr and Zach Walters, USA

“Architectural Extension”, Gerard Puxhe, UK

Samsung Electronics and Dezeen, a leading design and architectural magazine based in the UK, announced the grand prize winner of the co-hosted ‘Dezeen x Samsung Ambient Mode Design Competition’ at IFA 2018 on August 31. “Kinetic Decor,” designed by Matthew Cockeril, Stephen Waller and Peter Hälldahl of UK and Denmark-based Swift Creatives, was honored with the grand prize and €8,000 prize money for best demonstrating how the Ambient Mode feature in Samsung’s QLED TV transforms the TV into something meaningful, even when switched off.

The Dezeen x Samsung Ambient Mode Design Competition, held from June 25 to August 3, focused on the evolving usability of the Ambient Mode, a new feature on Samsung’s QLED TV which blends the TV into the living room and the surrounding space by mimicking the wall’s color and displaying desired content and information such as the news, weather, photos and music. To enter the competition, entrants submitted their best Ambient Mode designs using static or animated images.

“Now in its second consecutive year, the Dezeen x Samsung Ambient Mode Design Competition provides the perfect opportunity to honor leading designers from around the world while acquiring graphic designs that reflect the premium quality of our TVs,” said Jongsuk Chu, Senior Vice President of the Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “The opportunities to increase the usability of the QLED TV’s Ambient Mode is endless. The designs are reflections of how we imagine the Ambient Mode – as a feature that enriches the everyday lifestyles of our consumers across the world.”

The contest awarded €29,500 in total prize money, reflecting Samsung’s ambition to celebrate talented designers and acquire premium concept and design quality from all around the world. The judging panel this year included esteemed designers, Neville Brody and Erwan Bouroullec, who selected the winner based on a complex set of criteria – a full understanding of the Ambient Mode, as well as overall design, originality, usability and seamlessness with the surrounding space and user lifestyle.

The winning design “Kinetic Decor” is a digital re-staging of the ‘mobile’ concept, with the live movements of the design’s fish becoming more animated as a room’s lighting increases or a user approaches. The submission especially received high marks for its connectivity with Ambient Mode content that is already available today.

“Our design aims to bring calm and a beautifully dynamic structure into the living space,” said Swift Creatives team member, Matthew Cockeril. “We were motivated to apply because of the unique way Samsung’s display technology supports designs that are responsive and sensitive to the people within the space it sits.”

Alongside the grand prize winner, four finalists were shortlisted with their designs exhibited as special displays within the Samsung Electronics booth at IFA 2018. The designs include “Time Frame,” displaying the outside scenery on the TV; “Bird Clock,” picturing birds sitting on a power line to indicate time; “Architectural Extension,” a virtual space like the balcony that creates the illusion of extended space; and “Sphere,” displaying graphics of the Earth’s rotation matched with relevant content and data, including photos, news and friends’ social media posts.

To extend the ecosystem of Ambient Mode, Samsung Electronics will roll out a Software Development Kit (SDK) in beta version later this year.