Since the early 1990s, Samsung and IDEO have shared a history of influential and award-winning collaboration. Together, the two companies have worked on more than 50 projects, including conceptual explorations, via an ongoing strategic partnership. Integral to this relationship was an immersive cultural exchange in which Samsung designers joined IDEO's Palo Alto office to be exposed to the US consumer market and learn from the firm's human-centered design approach.

The offerings created by this partnership span a broad spectrum, from a series of conceptual multimedia devices to industry-changing monitors, TVs, laptops, mobile phones and interfaces, computer peripherals, and mobile platform strategies. Two concepts, the SimpleMedia (1998) and the TotalMedia (1995) home entertainment systems, were honored with design awards from ID Magazine and Business Week, respectively. The SyncMaster 400TFT Flat Panel Display (1997) won design awards in Korea, Germany, and the US. And most recently, the 970P and 971P LCD monitors, designed with former IDEO founder Mike Nuttall, were recipients of a 2007 IDEA Gold award.

In addition to awards recognition, these and other designs have bridged strategy and implementation to meet Samsung's aggressive product development schedule and create a successful, global offering. Culturally, the partnership with IDEO has helped Samsung Electronics adopt new ways to integrate internal teams, a human-centered design approach and iterative prototyping, and the methodologies to merge technology and design to create a leading-edge consumer line and brand. As evidence of Samsung's rise to being one of the world's largest design-driven companies, the company has more than doubled its internal design teams since 2000 ("Samsung Design," BusinessWeek Online).

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