Samsung City
Samsung
2018 / CES Las Vegas
Cheil Germany
summary
Smart Things
CES is the world's largest consumer electronics show, and in 2018 Samsung came with an ambition that went beyond any single product: unifying its entire portfolio — Video Display, Home Appliances, Mobile, Auto, and more — under SmartThings, a single platform of control.
The exhibition had to match that ambition: one coherent experience that could hold every division, tell a single story, and make the logic of total integration feel intuitive rather than overwhelming.
core idea
Samsung City
The city was the answer. Not as decoration, but as a genuine structural metaphor: a city is the original platform that connects people, services, and systems into a functioning whole — which is exactly what SmartThings does for products. CES itself, as a gathering point for the entire consumer electronics industry, reinforced the metaphor naturally.
The overall design concept came first, establishing the cityscape as the unifying theme. From there, the city was divided into districts — each one owned by a different business unit, each one distinct in identity, all of them held together by the same urban logic. The design had to work at both scales simultaneously: coherent as a city from the outside, specific and ownable for each shareholder from within.
key moves
The Skyline
A bold facade greets visitors at the entrance, framing the booth like a city gateway. The content focuses on the future of IoT and the promise of a fully integrated ecosystem — setting the tone before any individual product comes into view.
The Districts
With divisions spanning Video Display, Home Appliances, Mobile, Auto, and more, the interior was structured as a city of neighbourhoods — each shareholder owning a distinct block, with its own spatial identity, while remaining legible as part of the same city. The layout let visitors navigate by interest, as they would a neighbourhood, without losing the sense of a unified Samsung.
Digital Landscape
White horizontal lines thread across the entire booth, connecting every district under one continuous visual layer — a direct spatial echo of SmartThings itself. One line, one system, one Samsung.
my role
Part of a team of over ten designers, I contributed to the early ideation rounds that shaped the overall design direction. Once the city concept was established, I focused on designing one of the districts — the Mobile zone — developing it from the shared design language into a fully resolved spatial experience.
