Nurturing the Future of Design and Style

Harnessing the talent of young Malaysians designers

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – July 18, 2012 – Brought together by a mutual passion for style and design, Samsung partnered with the Malaysian Official Designer’s Association (MODA) for its 22nd Anniversary. Collaborating through MODA’s Young Designers Showcase, this alliance was borne from a strong desire to drive industry standards in style and design.

“Nurturing young talents has always been a passion point for Samsung, and it is key to elevating industry standards. Driven by a common vision to propel local design standards, Samsung forged a partnership with MODA to cultivate young talented designers to fuse technology and fashion into creative styling,” said Vincent Chong, Head of Mobile Phone Division, Samsung Malaysia Electronics Sdn Bhd.

“We believe in providing opportunities for the youth of today, and the Young Designers Showcase is an excellent platform to do so. We also believe that the partnership with MODA provides fresh talents with an ideal stage to push the boundaries of their creativity in design. In addition, this showcase also provided our young talents the invaluable experience of meeting realistic industry expectations – an opportunity that is very rare today,” Chong added.

Young designers worked in teams – composed of a designer, a hairstylist, and a make-up artist – to present a collection of three apparels that best communicates the showcase’s theme, Celebrate Innovation. The Young Designers Showcase provided ten of Malaysia’s brightest fashion design talents the opportunity to impress industry gurus by showcasing a design for the flip cover of Samsung’s highly coveted flagship device, the Samsung GALAXY S III.

“Mobile devices are more than the functional tools we used to perceive them as a decade ago. It is now seen as an essential element in personal style – as an extension of the self. We’re thrilled to have young designers contribute by helping people express their style through a raw and fresh vision for the Samsung GALAXY S III flip covers,” said Chong, who also remarked that Samsung may explore the possibility of mass producing the winning GALAXY S III flip cover design.

The Young Designers Showcase judging team comprised of MODA President, Gillian Hung, award-winning fashion designers Eric Choong, and Bernard Chandran, hailed as Malaysia’s “King of Fashion”. The judges evaluated each design based on best overall look, interpretation of the theme Celebrate Innovation, creativity and originality of the design. Vincent Chong, Head of Mobile Phones Division at Samsung Malaysia Electronics, was part of the judging team who evaluated the designs for the Samsung GALAXY S III flip covers.

Samsung presented the winning design team, headed by designer Rhea Tan, with a Samsung GALAXY S III each. Meanwhile, the top three Samsung GALAXY S III flip cover designs earned its designers, Julia Leong, Eddie Cheow and Frisca Dewi Mulia, RM2,000 cash prize respectively.