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Have You Ever Wondered What I Did During the Day?


It might not come as a surprise to most of you, but this design blogger has an alter ego as a design professional during the day! While it may seem that way at times, especially at 2 am, my life does not revolve around Design Sojourn. I don’t really talk much about my professional work on this blog, as I do like to keep my blog and work separately. Design Sojourn is a blog about my own personal views on design, and not about work. (Seen the disclaimer on the right?) However, from time to time, I make exceptions partly because the information is now in the public domain, and partly because I just can’t resist sharing it!

During the day, I’m actually a Senior Design Manager at Philips Design. I spent most of my time leading strategic design programs in the Philip’s Home Cinema Sound global portfolio. I have also been known to take care of DVD/Blu-Ray players and Remote Control programs as well. In a nutshell, I look after the design activities for most of the peripherals around the TV introduced in the second half of 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Working closely with Creative Directors (or Leads) and Program Managers, my role is to craft design strategies and business-focused design solutions that shape meaningful and (hopefully) successful product propositions. I am also responsible for creating a comfortable “playing field” for the design team by ensuring that all the proper budget and operational processes are in place.

Without further adieu, I would like to share with you two of the many designs my team and I have been working hard on in the last two years. The videos of the designs below are part of “Obsessed with Sound” launch campaign and have also been officially released on the Philips YouTube channel. The images are from the Philips Corporate Communications News Center set up on Flickr, especially for online media and bloggers.

HTS9520 Philips Immersive Sound home theatre with 360Sound

Philips HTS9140 SoundBar Home theater with Ambisound

I hope you share our excitement after watching these product launch videos! At this time I would also like to applaud and congratulate the awesome design team that put their hearts and souls into the designs. Well done guys, you know who you are! So what do you think of our labour of love? I would love to hear your feedback and comments.

So on this really high note, I thought you might like to know that come the end of September 2010, I will be leaving Philips Design. I won’t go into too many details now, but do stay tuned to Design Sojourn as I will share more about this and my future plans. Talk soon!

Edit: Details are up here!

9 Comments
  • Waikit Chung

    August 2, 2010 at 12:12 pm Reply

    Next time I walk in a audio shop, I will pay attention to your designed products 😉
    Wish you all the best with finding your next challenge!

  • RS

    July 29, 2010 at 1:55 am Reply

    Found this webpage while looking for reviews on the hts9520 and the hts9140. I find the design amazing but struggle to get any info on the acoustic performance of these systems. Any word you can share on that?
    If any of these systems reaches the performance level of a low-end Bose system, I will definitely be choosing Philips!

  • Emmanuel

    July 28, 2010 at 9:29 pm Reply

    Curiously I was wondering about that the other day.
    That seems to be a nice job, now I wonder why are you leaving and what you will do, but maybe we’ll know later.
    As Dan said I almost expected to see you in one of the video.
    For the products, they sounds good (if I can say^^).
    I like the amplifier, and the concept of the speakers/soundbar for this 360° sound is interesting (that made me rethinking about a concept seen long ago, based on an acoustic property of the eliptic shape, wich allow a tiny speaker to have a great sound, but never been developed, in place of bigger and more powerful speakers).
    The example concerning Batman soundtrack is very perceptible, amazing to see how it have been recorded!

  • Dan

    July 28, 2010 at 4:32 pm Reply

    You are humble…
    So, who are the Singaporean Designers behind the Brands?

  • DT

    July 28, 2010 at 2:42 pm Reply

    Hi Duncan, Thanks for your voting with your money, that is indeed a great vote of confidence!
    Hi Dan, thank you for your kind feedback. There are many of us, but we are all hidden behind Brands. There is nothing wrong with that but it is nice to know we are making a difference.
    With regards to the video, I’m not that famous! Ha-ha 🙂

  • Dan

    July 28, 2010 at 11:42 am Reply

    Wow! I didn’t know they were design by Singapore Designers!?
    Who are these Singaporean Designers?
    I am so proud that Singaporean influence the design from the initial concept into production for PHILIPS.
    And since you headed and came up with the strategic influence( SENIOR design manager) on the project, why aren’t you in the video sharing your thoughts on the design?
    That isn’t fair, isn’t it?

  • Duncan

    July 28, 2010 at 5:12 am Reply

    Some beautiful pieces of equipment there. I shall have to start saving now.
    Thanks for sharing.

  • DT

    July 27, 2010 at 10:04 am Reply

    Hey DK,
    Thanks for stopping by and leaving your comments. Philips is a global company, so we don’t highlight that it was designed in Singapore or any location per say. But these products were designed out of the Singapore location though. 🙂

  • DK

    July 27, 2010 at 12:48 am Reply

    Oh! Your team designed the HTS9520 HD Home theater? Wow. I saw it at the Philip media launch few weeks back. They didn’t mentioned that it was designed by a Singapore team. 🙁

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