{"id":10023991,"date":"2026-04-22T03:23:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T02:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/design-is-an-act-of-love\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T03:40:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T02:40:23","slug":"design-mauro-porcini-chief-design-officer-samsung","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/design-mauro-porcini-chief-design-officer-samsung\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00bbDesign is an Act of Love\u00ab"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, Samsung Electronics<\/a> appointed Mauro Porcini<\/a> as its first-ever Chief Design Officer in the company’s history. With the experienced Italian designer<\/a>, who previously led design at the highest level at PepsiCo and 3M, design now takes on new weight within the corporation. In a company that has long been defined primarily by technology, engineering, and scale, design is moving into a central role: it will help shape how technology is understood, experienced, and integrated into everyday life. During Milan Design Week<\/i> 2026 and the exhibition \u00bbDesign is an Act of Love\u00ab presented by Samsung, Porcini spoke with Chapter<\/i> about the role of design at the executive level, expression and meaning in the tech world, and about how a company of this size aims to create design coherence across very different product categories.<\/p>\n

Chapter<\/em>\u00a0 Samsung comes from a strong technology culture. What changes in a company like this when design is embedded at board level?<\/p>\n

Mauro Porcini<\/em>\u00a0 When design sits at the board level, it evolves from being a powerful capability into a strategic driver that shapes decisions from the very beginning. It influences not only what we create, but why we create it. Technology has always been a fundamental strength for Samsung, driving performance, scale, and innovation. Design complements that strength by bringing meaning, context, and human relevance into the equation. At that level, design helps align innovation with people’s real lives\u2014emotionally, culturally, and functionally. It also creates greater coherence. Across a company as large and diverse as Samsung, design becomes the connective tissue that links strategy, product, and experience into one consistent vision.<\/p>\n

\"Samsung's<\/p>\n

Chapter<\/em>\u00a0 Technology is currently developing at enormous speed. Why does the tech world so much more rarely succeed in giving that development a distinct design expression?<\/p>\n

Mauro Porcini<\/em>\u00a0 Speed often favors efficiency over intention. When technology evolves quickly, there is a natural tendency to focus on capability\u2014what it can do\u2014rather than on meaning, what it should do for people. This often leads to convergence: products start to look and feel the same. Distinct design expression requires time, reflection, and a strong point of view. It requires the courage to interpret technology, not just apply it. Without that, innovation risks becoming invisible: powerful, but indistinguishable.<\/p>\n

Chapter<\/em>\u00a0 In this context, you have also repeatedly suggested that technology needs to become more expressive again. How would such a shift become visible in the design strategy of a company like Samsung?<\/p>\n

Mauro Porcini<\/em>\u00a0 For us, this shift takes shape through what we call \u00bbExpressive Design\u00ab. It is a move away from neutrality and uniformity, towards diversity, identity, and emotional connection. Not as decoration, but as meaning, embedded into a dynamic balance between form and function. We often say that \u00bbform and function follow meaning.\u00ab In other words, every design decision begins with what matters to people, their needs, their aspirations, their individuality. At Samsung, this is not an abstract idea. It has been unfolding over the past few years through a series of distinctive projects\u2014TVs like The Frame<\/em>\u00a0 and The Serif<\/em>, or foldable smartphones such as the Galaxy Fold<\/em>, which reimagined both the role and the form of technology. Today, we are taking this to the next level, evolving from individual expressions into a coherent, scalable design strategy. You can see it in more recent work showcased at Milan Design Week<\/em>, like the 130-inch Micro RGB<\/em>\u00a0 presented in two very distinct design expressions, or the S95H<\/em>, which explores a unique approach, potentially customizable over time. What emerges is a different idea of consistency: not uniformity, but coherence across diversity and emotions. Technology, in this sense, becomes something you don’t just use, but something you relate to. Something that can reflect who you are, and adapt to the way you live.<\/p>\n

\"Samsung's<\/p>\n

Chapter<\/em>\u00a0 How is Samsung’s design team structured today, and what capabilities does a company of this scale need in order to think design consistently across such different product categories?<\/p>\n

Mauro Porcini<\/em>\u00a0 Samsung has a design organizations of about 1,500 designers, with teams across multiple continents and product categories\u2014from mobile and wearables to TVs and audio devices to digital appliances. But scale alone is not enough. We have an organization with a central corporate team and a series of other teams aligned to the business units, where industrial design, user experience, experience design, design innovation and design strategy work together under a shared philosophy and vision. At the same time, each category retains the flexibility to respond to its specific context. To make this work, you need not only great designers, but also strong capabilities in design research, storytelling, and culture building. Design becomes a language that everyone in the organization can understand and contribute to.<\/p>\n

Chapter<\/em>\u00a0 What is the first thing that tells you a design is good: its form, its use and effect in everyday life, or the meaning a product acquires for people \u2026 or something else?<\/p>\n

Mauro Porcini<\/em>\u00a0 For me, it always starts with meaning. A product can be beautiful and functional, but if it doesn’t resonate with people\u2014if it doesn’t improve their lives or connect with their emotions\u2014it remains incomplete. Good design is when form, function, and meaning come together seamlessly. You don’t notice them as separate elements anymore\u2014you just feel that it \u00bbmakes sense.\u00ab And often, the strongest signal is emotional. When people feel something\u2014delight, comfort, pride, connection\u2014you know the design is working.<\/p>\n

\"Samsung's<\/p>\n

Chapter<\/em>\u00a0 Looking back at your work across different global companies, what is, for you, the actual task of design?<\/p>\n

Mauro Porcini<\/em>\u00a0 Design is an act of love. At its core, the task of design is to take care of people\u2014understanding their needs, respecting their differences, and creating solutions that improve their lives. It sits at the intersection of business and technology, but its true role is to humanize both. To transform innovation into something meaningful, accessible, and emotionally relevant. If we do our job well, design doesn’t just solve problems, it creates possibilities. It helps people become a better version of themselves.<\/p>\n

Chapter<\/em>\u00a0 At Milan Design Week<\/em> 2026, Samsung is presenting an exhibition titled \u00bbDesign is an Act of Love.\u00ab Why is that precisely the right title for the brand at this moment?<\/p>\n

Mauro Porcini<\/em>\u00a0 Because we are at a moment where technology is becoming incredibly powerful, and at the same time, risks becoming increasingly distant from people. Artificial intelligence, automation, and connected ecosystems are transforming our lives. But to transform them for the better they need intention and purpose. \u00bbDesign is an Act of Love\u00ab is our way of making something very clear: technology is not the end, but the means. It must remain at the service of humanity, at the service of people. It is also how we frame the impact we want to create: helping people live longer, live better, live loud, and live on. Four simple ideas that reflect health and safety, time and quality of life, self-expression, and the preservation of memories and connections. It is a call to bring empathy, care, and responsibility back to the center of innovation. And ultimately, it reflects who we are becoming as a design organization, and the kind of future we want to help shape.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Chapter<\/em>\u00a0 Samsung’s exhibition brings together concept pieces and products already on the market. Why was it important for you to show both side by side?<\/p>\n

Mauro Porcini <\/em>Because innovation is a continuum. Concepts represent exploration, the questions we are asking, the directions we are investigating. Products represent commitment, ideas that have matured and are already impacting people’s lives. By showing them together, we invite people into the process, not just the outcome. You can see how ideas evolve, how thinking translates into reality. It makes innovation more transparent, more human, and, hopefully, more inspiring.<\/p>\n

\"Samsung's<\/p>\n

Chapter<\/em>\u00a0 Samsung presents very different product categories in Milan, from foldables and wearables to screens, audio and kitchen environments. What holds all of this together from a design point of view?<\/p>\n

Mauro Porcini <\/em>What holds everything together is a shared philosophy. Across all categories, we are guided by the same belief: technology should elevate people’s lives and amplify human potential. This translates into a common design approach, human-centered, expressive, and meaning-driven. And into a consistent framework of outcomes: helping people live longer, live better, live loud, and live on. Each product may look different, behave differently, and serve different needs. And in that they reflect human diversity. But they all express the same intent and share the same story: to create a more meaningful relationship between people and technology. That is what creates coherence, not uniformity, but a shared sense of purpose. [CPS]<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year, Samsung Electronics appointed Mauro Porcini as its first-ever Chief Design Officer in the company’s history. With the experienced Italian designer, who previously led design at the highest level at PepsiCo and 3M, design now takes on new weight within the corporation. In a company that has long been defined primarily by technology, engineering, and scale, design is moving into a central role: it will help shape how technology is understood, experienced, and integrated into everyday life. During Milan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10023976,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[409,336,337],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10023991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design","category-articles","category-carousel"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10023991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10023991"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10023991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10023994,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10023991\/revisions\/10023994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10023976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10023991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10023991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10023991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}