Art Center in Asia: Seoul Power

In this photo from the mid-90s, Product Design alumnus Gordon Bruce (BS 72), standing, teaches a creativity course at the Innovative Design lab of Samsung (IDS).

In the latest issue of Dot magazine, we explore Art Center’s long history—nearly 60 years—of connections to Asia. Today, we look at the College’s now 20-year relationship with Samsung.

When it comes to Art Center in Asia, one man whose influence stretches far and wide is Product Design alumnus Gordon Bruce (BS 72), who this past Spring delivered the College’s commencement address and received the Art Center Lifetime Achievement Alumni Award.

At that event, Bruce told an entertaining story—complete with props—about teaching in Seoul, South Korea and the time he used a banana to illustrate to a group of Samsung designers why “mother nature is the best designer.”

Beyond drawing laughter and a big round of applause, his tale offered a unique glimpse into an era when Samsung was far from the technology powerhouse it is today and a time when the company and Art Center were just beginning what is today a 20-year relationship.

In this photo from the mid-’90s, Bruce works with designer Kim Helmbold on a wheelchair concept at IDS.

Bruce’s career is legendary—he began at Eliot Noyes and Associates in New Canaan, Connecticut; he’s designed everything from sewing machines for Singer and tape recorders for IBM to aircraft for Mobil Oil and furniture for Safdie Architects; and his designs are included in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art (New York), The Centre Pompidou (Paris) and The National Museum of American History (Washington D.C.).

In the early ’90s, he returned to his alma mater to serve as the College’s vice president of Asian relations. In 1994, Art Center’s then-President David Brown asked Bruce if he knew of a Fortune 500 company called Samsung.

“I said ‘yes, but they make really terrible stuff,’” laughs Bruce. “And David [Brown] said to me, ‘Well, they’re coming here next week and I have no idea what they want.’”

Bruce remembers going outside with Brown and then-Chair of Graphic Design James Miho (BFA 55) to meet with the 17 executives (“I remember 17,” says Bruce. “I counted!”) who arrived in a series of limos. After a day spent touring the campus, everybody sat down in Brown’s office, including Miky Lee, granddaughter of Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul.

Bruce remembers being floored when Lee told them that company chairman Lee Kun-hee wanted them to plan a design curriculum and academic structure for an internal Samsung design institution. Further, she said the chairman wanted them to attend an upcoming company event being held in the Seoul Olympic Stadium.

“We said, ‘Well, we’ll have to check our calendars,’” says Bruce with a laugh.

In this photo from the mid-’90s, Bruce and then-Chair of Graphic Design James Miho (BFA 55), center with scarf, with IDS’ product and multimedia designers in Florence, Italy.

As you may have guessed, the College enthusiastically agreed and Bruce and Miho soon found themselves in Seoul, running the Innovative Design lab of Samsung (IDS). By introducing the company’s best designers to advanced forms of Art Center methodologies and having them tackle problems “from the inside out,” IDS paved the way for Samsung’s new design strategy.

“It was the only internal educational and research institution of its type,” says Bruce of the groundbreaking project. “And it was championed by the company’s chairman, perhaps the most powerful man in Korea. We were enormously successful in changing the direction of the company through a relevant design education.”

Today, Bruce works with the Bühler Group, Switzerland, and Huawei Technologies in Shenzhen and Shanghai. He lectures annually at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and, for the past seven years, has served as a jury member of the Red Dot Design Awards.

But his Art Center adventures in Korea are still clearly on his mind—Bruce recently started writing a book on the history between Art Center and Samsung and the creation of IDS.