Forerunners
with Passion

Designers in London & Milan

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This is Camille’s profile photo.

Camille Hammerer
Head of Studio Atelier, SDE
This is Paola Rossi’s profile photo.

Paola Rossi
Designer, SDE

Head to London if you want to encounter the latest trends in pop culture and journey to Milan if you want to experience the aptitude for innovation permeated by an artisan’s taste. New trends are born every day in those cities, soon extending their reach to everywhere in the world.

This is photos of SDE designers.
This is photos of SDE designers.

A designer’s cultural background may influence his or her identity. Tell us about your background.

Camille I currently work in London, but I was born and raised in France. I worked at a Trend Forecasting agency in Paris for 8 years and learned about translating social phenomena into creative strategies. I have also learned about creating Trend books and magazines that inspire customers. Based on these experiences I now work as the Head of Trends and Future Insights at SDE and work holistically with other design teams such as the Product Design, UX, Insight & Innovation teams here in London and our Material Innovation team in Milan. Paola My career orbits around the interest I have for materials. Before joining this team, I worked as a freelancer in home appliances and automotive fields. I have also been a professor at several design universities in Milan, specializing in teaching master classes. I taught about research methodologies, fundamentals of a creative process, and the importance of selecting materials. Now I am responsible for CMF research and material application at Samsung Electronics.

This is photos of SDE designers.
This is photos of SDE designers.

What is your reason for joining Samsung Electronics?

Paola My intention was to mature and learn more from a corporate company. When I was a freelancer, I worked with the Material Experience Team in Milan a couple times and was fascinated by the team. When Samsung Design Europe asked me to join, I was incredibly happy. Camille It was an opportunity for me to apply my abilities in forecasting trends on a brand level. I also had the desire to experience new cultures and a new city. The scope of my experience is widening each day as I am learning new things about London and interacting with various cultures. By collaborating with colleagues on interesting projects and communicating with different people, my horizons are ever-expanding.

You are each part of the Studio Atelier and the Material Experience Team. What are some of the responsibilities of your respective teams?

Camille Atelier is a new team with the goal of analyzing trends and forecasting the future to plan strategic directions for Samsung Electronics. The team consists of various experts including designers, researchers, lifestyle experts, strategists, and trend forecasters. Our role is to sense and understand the world we live in, define the most relevant drivers for the future, and then translate these two aspects in a way that gives creative inspiration for designers and strategic values for marketing and product planning. Paola We are a small but multidisciplinary team with expertise from pure CMF research to product design development. We constantly cross these two aspects together and generate new ideas. We often propose CMF solutions that affect the final product design during the advanced design phase. We then develop customized samples by interpreting certain materials and technological processes into Samsung’s unique language. After several tests, we define the most optimized form and create art pieces to convey our methodological process to business divisions.

“Our team motto is to respect others, learn from others, and build together.”

“Our team motto is to respect others, learn from others, and build together.”

This is photos of SDE designers.
This is photos of SDE designers.
This is photos of SDE designers.

How do you think you changed while working at Samsung Electronics?

Paola Smooth communication with team members and a horizontal organization are fundamental for inspiring people from the very beginning of a project and exploring new CMF proposals. Camille I’ve come to value teamwork much more as the team is much larger. When working together, you can achieve great results that are not possible when working alone. Our team motto is to respect others, learn from others, and build together. There is always something positive somewhere, and it is just a matter of angle or perspective. This personal philosophy became also a team philosophy.

Do you have a personal work philosophy?

Camille Albert Einstein said “I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge.” I agree with this quote. Trend forecasting is about the senses, which is why I trust my intuition and gut feeling. Paola I like the principles of ‘basic design,’ which emphasizes the importance of maintaining a good balance between shape and function in order to intuitively express the usability of a product. I believe that materials have the potential of solving functional aspects and expressing an aesthetic language to bestow value on a product and brand.

This is photos of SDE designers.
This is photos of SDE designers.
This is photos of SDE designers.

Creative tasks need inspiration. Where do you get your inspiration?

Paola Art and nature are major sources of inspiration for me. While art is pure emotion and the expression of an artist’s instinct, nature is totally organic and impossible to replicate in a standard way. I try to find the essentials in the antithesis of these two sources and use it as an idea to express the differentiating qualities of products. Camille There are four main phases. First is to be there in person. We try to experience the entire spectrum from attending seminars, talks, fairs, reading books and magazines, to interacting with art, culture, media, and music. Second is to always be sensing. Inspiration can come from anything we see or hear wherever we go. The third step is to think, wonder, and imagine about the information we gained and digest it. The last step is resetting. We would walk, meditate, or enjoy our hobbies to let our brains rest to re-energize.

Do you make any experimental attempts when designing?

Camille As part of a digital native generation, our team tries to stay away from computers or screens as often as possible to find other inspirations. It is crucial for us to experiment with the physicality of things, live in the moment, and make things with our own hands. Paola I would like to think and strategize in a more circular and transversal way instead of staying within a conventional framework. I want to transform my perspective and discover things that can be distinguished from the norm.

“I like the principles of ‘basic design,’ which emphasizes the importance of maintaining a good balance between shape and function in order to intuitively express the usability of a product.”

“I like the principles of ‘basic design,’ which emphasizes the importance of maintaining a good balance between shape and function in order to intuitively express the usability of a product.”

This is photos of SDE designers.
This is photos of SDE designers.

What are your prospective goals?

Paola Our main goal is to influence Samsung Electronics designers. We want to inspire new ideas and present new scenarios. We are also very interested in sustainability. We want to go beyond the scopes of trends or functions and conduct research on methods for recycling and resolving issues regarding natural resources and waste. Camille I see Samsung Electronics expand beyond technology and emerge as an emotional brand that leads us to a better future. I want to send positive messages when responding to complicated topics of the future such as sustainability, AI, inclusivity, and ethics in tech. Now that we have announced our Design Philosophy, we must be courageous and bold. I hope my work will help us reach that state.

Forerunners with Passion