To the top designer of British American Tobacco (BAT) Rothmans in the UK, design is about greater than how a heated tobacco gadget seems. He distills emotion from sensory experiences and etches it into the digital gadget, turning it into a lovely memento for customers.
Lee Ju-suek, principal design lead at BAT / Courtesy of BAT Rothmans
With BAT’s flagship heated tobacco model glo reaching greater than 10 million customers throughout 33 world markets since 2024, the corporate’s principal design lead, Lee Ju-suek, has been working to create a tool with broader common attraction — what he calls an “emotional gadget.”
Glo was first launched in Japan in 2016, adopted by Korea and different markets the next 12 months. Since then, the product has developed into an amalgam of the corporate’s newest applied sciences and its most rigorously thought-about design components. BAT attributes this evolution to Lee’s design philosophy, which prioritizes consistency of expertise over type, making a design identification that’s useful but heat, minimalist but distinctive.
Probably the most placing instance of Lee’s design rules will be discovered within the dial of the glo Hyper lineup. The TasteSelect dial, launched with the glo Hyper collection launched final 12 months, options an ergonomic rotating mechanism that permits customers to modify simply between normal and increase modes. The dial’s serrated sample — the place it meets the consumer’s thumb — was refined in 0.1-millimeter increments, echoing the precision craftsmanship of a watch crown.
“The dial is greater than only a gadget for useful management. It serves as a medium by means of which customers can emotionally work together with the product. By rotating the dial, customers intuitively perceive the product and acknowledge its features not by means of know-how however by means of the reminiscence of their palms,” Lee mentioned in an interview with The Korea Instances.
BAT Rothmans’ glo Hyper professional received the 2025 iF Design Award within the product design class. Courtesy of BAT Rothmans
Glo Hyper professional, a part of the lineup, received the 2025 iF Design Award within the product design class, following its receipt of the 2024 European Product Design Award within the shopper electronics class. Lee mentioned the honors acknowledged the gadget’s “emotional performance.”
Earlier than becoming a member of BAT’s world design workforce in London in 2020, Lee graduated from the Samsung Artwork & Design Institute in Korea and labored on Samsung Electronics’ design technique workforce in Seoul. He later joined Felix Heck Studio, a Munich-based design agency, earlier than transferring to Samsung Design Europe in London.
Lee now leads BAT’s total product design course.
Lee’s final aim is to design “experiences past merchandise.” One of many key ideas he’s pursuing is color-material-finish, and he predicts that steel substitutes, materials and clear finishes — hardly ever seen in digital gadgets — will likely be more and more adopted.
“Sooner or later, design experiences could start not from know-how however from supplies. Via glo, I need to design new feelings for the world and present that design can depart an emotional resonance in on a regular basis life,” Lee mentioned.
