School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) alum Donghoon Chang (MFA 1991) is redefining the role of design. As Executive Vice President at Samsung, Chang played a critical role in shifting the design strategy from style and convenience to a more value-centered, user-driven design.

Chang’s design ethos is to make products more meaningful for people. He motivates his designers to analyze core problems, travel around the world for aesthetic inspiration, and collaborate with psychologists, engineers, and economists to research user behavior and cultural trends in everything from fashion to architecture.

While at SAIC Chang traversed departments and worked with artists and other designers. He studied film, photography, and art history, and he says, “SAIC taught me new viewpoints and methodologies that helped me to see design in a different perspective and as an interdisciplinary approach.”

At Samsung, Chang often taps into his exploratory, collaborative experiences at SAIC to think about design in new ways. And under his direction, Samsung has become a leader in mobile devices, developing functional, expressive designs that at one point became the bestselling smartphones in the world.

Recently named a jury president for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Chang envisions a future where mobile design helps build a better and more equitable world through layers of communication, collaboration, and sharing. This is socially responsible design, and this is Beautiful/Work.