Trio of red dot awards won for concept design and communication design Two iF awards, and a Good Design Award also won

1. PRESS RELEASE
Seymourpowell design multiple-award-winning products & product
identity for kt (Korea Telecom)
Trio of red dot awards won for concept design and communication design
Two iF awards, and a Good Design Award also won
London, UK, 30 November 2012 – leading global design and innovation company
Seymourpowell, is pleased to announce details of its multiple-award-winning design work for
Korea’s leading telecoms provider kt (Korea Telecom). As well as developing new products for
kt’s olleh range, Seymourpowell also delivered a comprehensive product identity across kt’s
entire olleh suite of 56 products.
As part of the brief, Seymourpowell was tasked with bringing consistency to kt’s family of 56
product types - each managed, designed and manufactured separately by different internal
business units. The products range from USB modems, connector cables, set top box’s, remote
controls, smart phones, satellite dishes, rack servers, digital signage, laptops, speakers, and
point of sale terminals.
Seymourpowell created a single product identity, outlined in a set of innovative guidelines that
ensure the family of olleh products remain on-brand. By translating the core product values of
the brand, the product identity provides a consistency to the design of all olleh products.
Core to the brief was the development of kt’s award-winning home networking devices 1, which
consist of the internet modem, home hub and set top box. These products received a red dot
2
award for design concept in the entertainment category , and are subsequently in the process
of being developed for production. Key to their success was their subversion of common
impersonal high tech devices. Through their natural design style and sophisticated form, the
olleh products provide an emotional and sympathetic connection with the users and their lives.
Seymourpowell also designed the packaging associated with the home networking devices,
which received the ‘Best of the Best’ red dot award for design concept in the productivity
1 http://youtu.be/Sj5M0qF0Hag
2
http://www.red-dot.sg/dconcept/portfolio/view.php?rid=93

2. /cont
3
category . The packaging has been designed to minimise material use and encourage re-use.
Once the packaging delivers the products safely to the home, it can be reused as a device to
help manage the cables associated with kt’s products by simply turning the packaging inside
4
out . The product packaging is consistent with the identity of the products they contain as it
uses simple, unobtrusive and sympathetic forms.
To demonstrate the effectiveness of the new product identity, Seymourpowell designed 14 new
products within the olleh range. These products tested the understanding and consistency of
the product identity and include: a wifi phone, landline phone, tablet, remote control, wibro USB
modem, security camera, power adaptor, connector cables, cable tidy, domestic 3g repeater,
and public wifi modem.
The attributes of the olleh products were communicated in the olleh curve brochure, for which kt
received the red dot award in communication design for editorial and corporate publishing5.
The brochure is a sleek visual depiction of how Seymourpowell and kt came to develop the
concepts and product identity.
Seymourpowell Associate Design Director Matthew Cockerill commented, “The scale of kt’s
ambitions is really unprecedented. The project involved the creation of a product identity manual
that allows their business units and design teams to create and manage the development of
products with a consistent visual language and brand identity. The work was a creative and
technical challenge, to deliver an identity that could deliver aesthetically pleasing products
across such a diverse portfolio of products whilst respecting their component constraints,
ergonomic considerations and product category conventions.”
Cockerill added, “Ultimately the success of the product identity will be judged by the products it
helps define. In our work, we have created the first 14 of these products, delivering consumer
technology that is appropriate for the consumer’s home as well as the brand. The products aim
3
http://www.red-dot.sg/dconcept/portfolio/view.php?rid=175
4
http://youtu.be/fh6qETNLtEs
5
http://red-dot.de/cd/online-exhibition/work?code=05-1031&y=2012&c=0&a=0

3. /cont
to be sympathetic to their surroundings, blending in whilst simultaneously retaining individual
character and identity.”
Yung Kim, Senior Executive Vice President of kt, with previous experience at BT, was first to
propose the Product Identity project at kt. Kim commented, “We were lucky to have partnered
with such skilful design partners as Seymourpowell. We couldn’t have asked for a better partner
to work with and they never stop impressing us with their passion and commitment to the
project. We would like to thank Matthew Cockerill and his team for their outstanding aesthetic
sense and management capability.”
In the last few days, its been confirmed the project has won yet more awards. The home
networking devices won the iF product design award in the ‘Computer’ category. Secondly, The
kt Product Identity work won the iF communication design award in the ‘R&D of professional
concepts’ category. Finally the remote control in the olleh range won a Good Design Award in
the category of ‘communication terminals/device for individual and family’.
***ENDS***
For further information contact:
Tim Duncan or Erin Smith
PR, Seymourpowell
Email: tim.duncan@seymourpowell.com
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7386 2369
Email: erin.smith@seymourpowell.com
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7386 2339
About Seymourpowell – The shape of things to come
Seymourpowell is one of the world’s leading design and innovation companies. Founded in
1984 by Richard Seymour and Dick Powell, the London-based group of award-winning
designers has produced some of the ‘milestone’ products of the last two decades. The company
is now part of Writtle Holdings.

4. /cont
Seymourpowell is currently 95 people, combining a design studio, research centre, materials
library and prototyping workshop.
Seymourpowell has a unique holistic approach to design and innovation, which combines in
depth experience and up to date intelligence about people, markets and businesses. The
company has the ability to forecast and interpret the vital implications of behaviors and work out
future scenarios to give its clients the confidence and reassurance they are making the right
decision.
Seymourpowell is skilled in exploiting ideas that create real value and always look to move
clients forward creatively. Seymourpowell is not just a company of visionary thinkers, but future
‘doers’. Ultimately, Seymourpowell is about making things better: better for people, better for
business and better for the world.
Specialisms include design innovation, transportation design, ethnographic user research,
strategy and new product development (NPD), trends and forecasting, product design and
development, 3D structural design and 2D graphic design.
About kt (Korea Telecom) – Wave of Innovation
kt is the leading telecommunication service provider in Korea. Design Policy Team is core to
managing diverse design initiatives of the business units across the entire organisation. The
primary responsibility of the team is to establish a total identity, encompassing the whole
spectrum of brand, space, UX, and product identity. The team is comprised of individuals from
different backgrounds, including industrial engineers, marketing experts, communication
designers, interior designers, and UX designers. With multidisciplinary approach, the team
presents different sorts of innovative projects with a whole new perspective.