The Masters of Design

For much of its 36 years, Samsung was known for stamping out boxy, copycat designs. But a decade ago, one of the company's own executives began propelling Samsung into the high-end electronics market. Chung Kook Hyun is the man behind the company's transformation from also-ran to industry darling. During his tenure, Hyun has launched a Samsung design school, created a "Design Bank" filled with ready-to-ship concepts, and built an army of nearly 500 industrial-design wizards. In the States, the company's high-end televisions have trounced competitors like Sony and Panasonic. "What is Hyun's impact? Incredible," exclaims Kristina Goodrich, executive director of the Industrial Designers Society of America. "In the consumer- electronics industry, there are very few differentiators; the manufacturers all have the same technology." But only one has Hyun. -- LC

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Gareth Williams

Founding partner,
Human World Wide, Los Angeles

Shhh! Gareth Williams is trying to tell you something. Just don't expect him to come right out and say it. As one of the world's leading sound designers, Williams has made his name using arresting, abstract audio to convey messages for award-winning commercials. Call him a sorcerer of sound. The media that Williams works in, from commercials and short films to video games and remix albums, are as varied as the sources he draws from. For an Adidas rugby ad, Williams interlaced the cacophony of grunting pigs and roaring lions with visuals of warring rugby players. Ad Age recognized the spot with two awards in 2000. "When you make sounds more abstract, people have to use their imaginations," he says. "That's when you engage them." -- LC

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Dave Eggers

Editor and designer, McSweeney's Quarterly,
San Francisco, California

People know Dave Eggers as the author of the memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and as the editor of McSweeney's Quarterly. But Eggers, a self-described "hack designer," is also the creator of the graphic stunts that grace his work. The table of contents of McSweeney's issue five, for example, includes charts depicting each story's degree of difficulty.

Unlike most authors, Eggers writes with the desktop publishing software QuarkXPress so he can imagine how the words will look on the page. That illustrates his boundary-breaking approach: While his work is laden with hip, modern irony, his interlaced roles as wordsmith and designer make him a craftsman in the traditional sense -- a contemporary version of the poet and artist William Blake. The result is a body of work -- at once complex and humane -- that's all the more compelling. -- JM

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Jeanna Kimbre

Senior industrial designer,
Sony Ericsson, Lund, Sweden

Designing a product that will live up to the breathless hype of high-speed mobile-phone networks isn't an easy call. But that's exactly what Jeanna Kimbre was charged with when she landed the assignment to create Sony Ericsson's Z1010, the joint venture's first handset for "3G," or third-generation, mobile networks. Better attempts have followed -- the components have shrunk and designers have had more time to dwell on 3G. But blazing the trail, as Kimbre did with the elegant Z1010 -- which won the 2003 International 3D Award for industrial design -- is by far the toughest part of any big-time creative effort.

Kimbre moves effortlessly from one product category to another, epitomizing design's boundary-breaking impulse. She recently took a yearlong leave in Australia to prototype handbags and furniture for Float Design. That work with different materials, colors, and textures will inevitably influence the next round of Sony Ericsson handsets. -- JM

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Noreen Morioka

Cofounder, AdamsMorioka,
Los Angeles, California