The TV That Turns Into Art When Turned Off

Customization options for Samsung’s artwork-like Frame televisions have expanded, with designer-led concepts that extend from the screen and out onto the bezel and stand.

The South Korean electronics company worked with Dutch duo Scholten & Baijings and French designer Inga Sempé on the new customizations, which were presented at consumer electronics fair IFA in Berlin this week.

The customizations are made for Samsung’s Frame TV. Designed by renowned technology designer Yves Behar and released earlier this year, the television is made to look like a framed work of art when not in use.

Its screen can be filled with one of 100 artworks from galleries including Spain’s Prado Museum and the UK’s Saatchi Gallery, while its frame was initially available in white, black and wood veneer.

Those options have now been expanded by Scholten & Baijings and Sempe, who have created their own artworks, bezels and TV stands for the Frame.

At IFA, these products were showcased in interiors-themed stands styled by the designers, showing their aesthetic extending beyond the screens and out onto the walls and even the furnishings.

The project is the result of Scholten & Baijings’ ongoing collaboration with Samsung, which has seen the Dutch designers advising the brand on interior design for the last four years.

“Four years ago we told them, ‘can we not find a mode for a TV that is not a black hole?’,” the studio’s Co-founder Carole Baijings told Dezeen.

“That is why, for example, we don’t have a TV at home, we have a projector, because we don’t want this big black hole in our home.”

This advice fed into the development of the Frame TV, which according to Behar is designed to ‘disappear in the décor’ when not in use. Samsung also put out the Bourellec brothers’ Serif TV, which has a more sculptural design.

Scholten & Baijings invited Sempé to join them on the project to design new offerings for Frame. Scholten & Baijings’ designs are based around color blocking and geometric shapes.

They have created three artworks: minimal, which is based on transparent blocks of colur; colorful, which plays with contrasts; and extraordinary, where line and grid patterns are superimposed.

Baijings said that all of the artworks are well complemented by their four bezel and stand finishes – white-washed wood, a green-grey anodised aluminium, a high gloss blight blue inspired by porcelain and lacquerware, and a silicone-look dusty pink.

Sempé’s design, meanwhile, is based on flowing lines that are bunched together and described by Samsung as ‘evoking liveliness and movement’. Her frame options include a stand covered in the same flowing lines, and a bezel where each side is a different contrasting color.

Baijings said that her work with Samsung was focused on designing products that would allow consumers to feel less surrounded by technology that they are not actively using.

“We need something that is great when you’re watching TV, but also great during the day when you’re not watching TV,” said Baijings. “So we’re looking at super-nice, very minimal products that fit in the whole world, not only high technology.”

The Frame TV customizations were on show at IFA, which ran in Berlin from 1st-6th September. On display were products from big brands like Panasonic – which launched a new Google Assistant-powered smart speaker – as well as start-ups like Pium, which makes a WiFi-connected fragrance diffuser.