the samsung developer conference (sdc) is coming soon! we’re looking forward to another opportunity to share new product information and updates to the platforms and tools that you use to make your own products. today, we’re talking with nicolás castro of bergen. bergen won a best of galaxy store award in 2018 for their beautiful and innovative galaxy watch watch faces. nicolas attended sdc in person to receive the award and learn from the technical sessions. at the time, he discussed what winning the award (video in spanish) meant to their company. we are taking this opportunity to discuss his experiences at the event and how he has succeeded with galaxy store. nicolás castro from bergen speaking at sdc 2018 (video in spanish) hi nicolás, thank you for joining us. tell us, "who is nicolás castro?" hi eric, and thanks for giving me this great space to talk and share my work. well, who is "nicolás castro"... i feel i could be writing for a while, haha. i have been a product designer for maybe more than 15 years. i live in montevideo, uruguay, a small and great country in south america. i am passionate about design—i think it shapes my everyday life, mainly focusing on working as a product designer, galaxy theme and galaxy watch face designer as well. i am a father of a child of about five years old named delfina, with whom also in our play times, we enjoy sketching and designing together. in my free time, which is tiny, i try to read and learn about ux and crypto art. i always leave time to do sport as well, i am an active person, and i am convinced that sport helps us to be more energic persons and healthy in body mind and soul. what can you share with us about bergen, your company? where did it start, who else is involved, etc. the bergen startup was born at the end of 2017 and focused on creating watch faces. before that, i worked as a ux designer in a software company and then discovered this fantastic business. after some research about it, i could see great potential and opportunity, so i decided to quit my job and build a startup named bergen. before the pandemic, bergen was composed of about six people, some of them external collaborators. after the pandemic, the team was reduced to two people. these were difficult moments, but bergen was able to come out ahead. i want to mention a particular thing; many people ask me why the name bergen. it regards the meaning of the word that caught me: "mountain man who looks far." however, there are other meanings as well. bergen is a city in norway, which is beautiful, but i haven't been there yet! so, after winning two awards using its name, i think i should go in person... haha. what led you to creating watch faces for galaxy store? creating watch faces is a task that i am passionate about. since i was a child, i have always liked speedometers, rpm gauges, and car dashboards. i like speed, and i think there is something there that connects me and makes me enjoy it so much when designing. generally, bergen's style tends to be 3d oriented. we use graphics that stand out on the clock, always taking care of all the details. we prefer precise use of colors, contrasts, fonts, and the correct use of brightness and shadows. i focus on creating designs that reflect the users' personalities, the same thing that happens with clothing. nicolás castro from bergen accepting a best of galaxy store award from niklas lyback, director of galaxy store at samsung you attended sdc as a live event in 2018 and you received a best of galaxy store award for your watch face designs. what do you remember about the event? well, whenever i remember that moment, an immense joy comes over me. it was an incredible milestone in my life. i met many people, colleagues, and a large part of the samsung developers staff. i also remember the emotion of being the first award-winning designer in this type of category—that year, the award ceremony for watch face designers began. i would like to go back in time to feel the emotion of those days again—they were thrilling days. even the return to my country was incredible; my family, friends, and colleagues were waiting for me at the airport to celebrate. you received some extra publicity at the time from an unexpected source. how exciting was that? well, that was unexpected, and i was amazed when the us embassy in uruguay published a press release about it. that gave it even more significance to the event that had occurred. what are the most important things you learned at sdc? the most important thing was that people could achieve extraordinary things when they work with passion and ambition; they can cross many borders and create incredible opportunities. so i want to encourage everyone to learn about developing apps, designing galaxy themes, and galaxy watch faces. i'd like to invite those who want to learn to be successful watch face designers at facefy.org. in a previous blog post from 2018, you talked about your creative process. what process and tools do you use to go from ideas to finished product? have any parts of your creation process changed in four years? well, to be honest, not much has changed. my design process is the same: research, sketching, testing, creating the final design, iterating, and starting again. new editing tools have appeared, and that's a good thing, but the core of the creative process is the same. it is not recommended to design inside a program—they are used to build your creation, not to increase creativity. instead, grab a white paper and pen and draft your ideas! that is my standard method to design. some bergen watch face designs for galaxy watch your designs have a very striking visual style with sharp, angular features and bold colors. they look like they are made for active people. are these designs reflected in your own lifestyle? wow, you have good eyes. i am a person who does sports, such as biking, running, cross training, kart races, paragliding jumps, surfing, and playing football. the feeling of those styles is for active people! and of course, for those who want to experience energy 😊 this year, as the previous year, sdc will be a virtual event on october 12. what are you hoping to learn more about this year? this year i am very interested in continuing to learn about nfts as much as teaching people worldwide to create profitable watch faces. regarding nfts, i think there are many possibilities for many people, and it would be great if samsung put some eyes into it too—who knows, create a new side business in the virtual world. can you share where we see more of your work? gladly, here you go! galaxy store (mobile devices only) instagram facebook https://www.facefy.org thank you for your time today, nicolás. perhaps in a future time, we can all meet in person again. hey eric, for sure! i love flying and traveling to the us occasionally, so i will gladly meet you again. thanks for your "buena onda" (good vibes and energy), as always. resources for sellers at galaxy store many thanks to nicolás for sharing his experiences with us. nicolás is one of the many entrepreneurs all over the world whose businesses are enabled by galaxy store. for more information on signing up and selling on galaxy store, look into the galaxy store documentation. for assistance with setting up and starting your sales campaigns, the galaxy store discussion forums are where you can get great insights from other sellers. we look forward to sdc 2022 on october 12. join us online to watch the keynote and learn in the technical sessions at samsungdeveloperconference.com. join us on twitter, facebook, linkedin, and youtube to continue the discussion.

samsung is proud to sponsor and speak at wacom's connected ink 2020 conference. samsung's catarina cho will speak on a panel discussing "new work and the future of digital eduction". you can also partake in the digital drawing experience on android. after the conference, be sure to check out the galaxy s pen remote sdk. connected ink is an open innovation platform which takes you on a journey of creativity, art and music combined with the latest developments of digital transformation and ink technology. it is a hybrid online- and offline event which let‘s you connect and expand your network, to explore and discover unexpected creative sparks. join wacom in making the world a more creative place with future technologies. connected ink is a 24 hour online event, freely accessible from around the globe to you or in a live experience in tokyo.

samsung will be at the gdc (game developers conference) in san francisco, march 21st to 25th with 4 speaking sessions. mark your calendars. register now timespeaker(s)session titledescription wed 3/23, 3:30pm – 4:30pm gary keen, engineer, samsung research uk new gpu, the ultimate reality! the new gpu - samsung xclipse 920 from amd’s radeon technology is now in the new exynos 2200 chipset for the further galaxy products. this new gpu for the android ecosystem has unique architecture like layered gles implementation and the desktop feature set like ray tracing (rt) and variable rate shading (vrs). this session will share the important information about the new gpu and best practices with game developers. case studies will highlight the new rt & vrs features. attendee takeaway: how to develop robust graphics applications with the new xclipse gpu how game developers can support xclipse gpu how to optimize graphics application using opengles or vulkan with the xclipse gpu how to use rt & vrs features with xclipse gpu wed 3/23, 5pm – 6pm jinho lim, principal engineer jeoungju kim, principal engineer sanglae kim, staff engineer what if your phone's avatar is in the game or metaverse?(pre-recorded) the ar emoji feature on samsung devices enables users to create a 3d avatar model that can be used in other applications on the device. ar emoji is the avatar for samsung galaxy device users. users can create an 'ar emoji' that looks just like them. also, they can take photos and record videos using ar emoji. now this high quality ar emoji can be your avatar just like an avatar on other platforms like game or metaverse. the galaxy ar emoji sdk enables game developers create human-like characters for games.attendee takeaway: attendees will gain a clear understanding of the "ar emoji" of samsung galaxy and its sdk. thu 3/24, 4pm – 5pm hesham dar, senior data scientist at samsung research uk game performance optimization with causal models(pre-recorded) on modern mobile devices, there are a number of systems which aim to improve the game experience, delivering high and stable frame rates while keeping the device at manageable temperatures. often the standard method of tuning these device systems is through either lab based testing, which is not scalable, or alternatively, using real world analysis. however, systems on device don’t run in isolation and when tuning parameters, other factors can be at play which potentially obfuscate the impact of the change. by leveraging domain knowledge and building an explicit causal model of the system, a better indication of the treatment effect size can be measured as well as other useful insights on the performance of such systems.attendee takeaway:attendees will learn about how causal modelling using bayesian networks can be used to better evaluate any changes made, based on real world cases to improve game performance on mobile devices. thu 3/24, 5:30pm – 6:30pm michael barnes, head of game ecosystem at samsung research uk david berger, senior software engineer, unity unfolding your gaming potential with galaxy gamedev galaxy gamedev will talk through tips and tricks that can help unfold the potential of games on foldable devices. advantages and design considerations for the foldable form factor will be addressed as well as optimizations using game engines like unity and unreal. this session will also include a comprehensive overview of the new features in adaptive performance 4.0 partnership between samsung and unity. it will show developers how to use the latest features from adaptive performance 3.0, such as the boost mode, cluster info, and unity profiler support, to squeeze even more performance out of their games. it also features the new visual scripting integration with adaptive performance 4.0 along with additional automatic scalers to optimize performance.attendee takeaway:attendees will walk away with an understanding of simple design considerations that can improve the ux of their game on foldable devices. they will also learn about how adaptive performance 4.0 can be used in unity to optimize performance on games using less power.

putting diversity, equity and inclusion (de&i) at the center of your organization or work is key to creating a better working environment, building stronger teams and developing products for a broader audience. in this installment of our better for all series, we’ve interviewed daniel appelquist from the samsung internet developer advocacy team about their approach to de&i. through inclusive policies that promote diversity, they’re creating a better work culture and future for tech. tell us about the samsung internet team and how you’re bringing de&i into your projects. we’re a small team operating out of samsung research uk, associated with the samsung internet web browser. we focus on web development and web standards, working with developers, and representing samsung in the w3c. when it comes to diversity and inclusion, it’s an intrinsic part of our work. from developing an api to respond to foldable ui to working with w3c to update their code of conduct to supporting initiatives by underrepresented groups in tech, we are investing time and money in creating a more inclusive space online. dan and laura from the samsung internet advocacy team why is de&i work so important to you? first, it’s important for me to be on the right side of de&i issues, to be a good human. everyone should care about de&i—it shouldn’t require a personal relationship to be invested in the issues. emphasizing de&i is also key to building strong teams and a better culture. especially in the technology sector where you’re building tools for an international audience. lack of diversity can cause you to miss issues that impact underrepresented groups. having a team with different perspectives and sensibilities can help you to build better products that work for everyone. how did de&i become central to your work? why is it a priority? when i joined the samsung team in 2016, it was important that de&i became a part of everything i did. if i was going to build a diverse team, i would have to codify de&i in the workplace. we started by creating a code of conduct around tech events, which included things like not participating in all-male panels. from there we worked on developing a code of conduct beyond conferences, to now looking at our process for ways we can bring de&i to the rest of the tech community. how does your team consult with the community and stay updated on de&i concepts? a lot of de&i learning happens organically through osmosis—being around diverse groups of people, listening to the news, scrolling online forums—since it’s a discussion that’s happening all around us. in addition to listening, we also take an activist role, leading the conversation around de&i from time to time. for example, we recently prompted a discussion with w3c around a diversity ticket for an upcoming conference, which resulted in support for the idea. there are devrel conferences and communities we participate in to stay involved on de&i topics within the developer community. we also follow a lot of great accounts on twitter such as @nonbinarytech. how can you build a culture of de&i in the workplace? during recruitment, we treat de&i like a skillset. we’re looking for people that will help build a better-balanced environment and culture, because in my personal experience, diverse teams are usually more successful. knowing about codes of conduct and how to apply those to open source and online communities is a valuable asset. we also have policies that we share publicly to make it clear what we stand for and what types of things we won’t tolerate. for example, we openly share our code of conduct online. on the samsung website you’ll also find the company’s commitment to diversity & inclusion. sharing these policies act as a great litmus test to see if who you’re looking to partner with or hire shares the same values. within our team we emphasize using inclusive language as part of building a culture around de&i. for example, we avoid using the word ‘guys’ in our group chats and opt for a more gender-neutral word like ‘everyone.’ eventually it naturally becomes a part of the culture. now i find it quite jarring when i hear ‘guys’ in a meeting. finally, be patient. if you’re not able to change your entire corporate culture overnight, that’s okay. you can only influence so much; people need space to do the work and get there themselves. while we’ve managed within our team to create a micro-culture that champions de&i, we’ve accepted that we can’t be responsible for others to change. we can only be responsible for doing the work of sparking courageous conversations around de&i. what is the most challenging aspect developers encounter when working towards establishing more de&i? you encounter people who are not supportive, which often happens where you have strongly entrenched people in a community. in tech there’s a culture where if you’re really smart, then certain rules don’t apply. since those people are seen as thought leaders, other people believe that they can behave inappropriately too. having a robust code of conduct is a good way to defend your team from inappropriate behaviour, since they can always reference it when someone is acting outside of what’s acceptable. i also make sure to support my team members who’ve experienced resistance to de&i in other tech communities. i engage with the community and encourage others to rally behind the issue, to make sure my team members feel like they aren’t alone. how do you see de&i shaping the future of work at samsung and in the tech industry? we’re still in the phase where we have to put a lot of energy into defending these concepts and ideas, even though they’re more mainstream and accepted. i have hope that in the future it will be better. right now, we need to keep investing time and energy to keep the momentum going. i’m certainly not going to give up. how can developers participate and contribute to de&i? don’t wait for permission from corporate, just start incorporating de&i into your process. it can be as simple as a set of guidelines and decision criteria for your team. take initiative and make your team feel empowered to make a change. it’s up to all of us to champion de&i. you can start small. put out a public statement about your de&i values and live by them. seek out opportunities to put power behind underserved communities. it’s a mistake to think that events like black girls code are exclusive. support for diverse communities is support for inclusiveness. participating or sponsoring specific conferences like queerjs helps marginalized communities gain and maintain momentum. as an individual, what you can do is speak up. if you’re going to an event and there’s no code of conduct, mention it. get involved. you can also take a more active role in shaping de&i by joining groups like the w3c web standards community. special thanks to daniel for sharing his team’s de&i journey and advice on how you can be a champion of de&i. visit the samsung diversity & inclusion page and follow @samsung_internet to stay informed on their latest de&i efforts. we hope you find our better for all series helpful in shaping a more diverse and inclusive space. stay tuned for more blog posts in our series on improving mobile accessibility to create an experience that's better for all. follow us on twitter at @samsung_dev for more tips on designing and developing for samsung.

as a platinum supporter of the 17th acm international conference, mobisys, samsung joins with other top innovators to present the latest in design, implementation, usage and evaluation of mobile computing systems, applications and services. the first day of the conference is an industry-focused program designed to provide the future evolution of internet of things (iot). this is a gathering of top industry researchers, junior and senior faculty, and talented msc and phd students from around the globe. this day is designed to educate, inform and examine the wealth of ideas which will shape the ai-powered iot ecosystem of the future. the day-one afternoon keynote speaker will be of particular interest. overseeing the smartthings cloud engineering team jaeyeon jung (corporate vice president, samsung electronics). her keynote covers democratizing the internet of things with smartthings, the journey of integrating existing products with the smartthings ecosystems using the smartthings schema; creating smart interactions using smartthings apis; and connecting zigbee or z-wave devices with smartthings hubs. jung explains how the smartthings developer workspace provides a single, powerful platform to seamlessly integrate iot products into this ecosystem: https://smartthings.developer.samsung.com/. additional conference program highlights include the following keynotes: prof. kang g. shin, university of michigan marriage of smart phone with smart cars – discussing the technical challenges exploiting mobile devices to achieve/enhance vehicle intelligence. prof. gregory d. abowd, georgia institute of technology the material of the 21st century: moving beyond moore and weiser – why self-sustainable computing provides a compelling vision for everyday life. the complete technical program schedule offers a full complement of speakers, panel talks, demos and workshops. we look forward to meeting you at mobisys!

intellectual property infringement checklist this checklist helps sellers submit their applications and registration information for review processing in order to be published in the galaxy store. note : this checklist is not part of the samsung app distribution guide for galaxy store, which may change independently. in this document: • ‘seller’ refers to an individual person, company, or corporate entity that can register commercial and non-commercial applications in samsung seller portal. • ‘application’ and ‘app’ refer to an application that can be published in the galaxy store. • ‘content’ refers to: a) anything an application presents to app users by any means (including, but not limited to, visual and audio means), b) anything in an application that is not presented to app users. content can include, but is not limited to, names, signatures, persona elements, images, likenesses, symbols, insignia, text, sounds, music, programs, and brand identifiers such as logos, fonts, styles, and colors. • ‘ip rights’ refers to intellectual property protection based on, but not limited to, copyright, trademark, service mark, and publicity rights. content and registration information (including, but not limited to binary files, descriptions, images, and tags entered into the app registration in samsung seller portal) must abide by: • the requirements in this checklist document. • the requirements in the app distribution guide and the terms and conditions for galaxy store. • the berne convention for the protection of literary and artistic works, the universal copyright convention, and all other international agreements applicable to intellectual property, regardless of whether or not the seller’s country or the country where the seller’s application is downloaded to a user is a signatory to those agreements. note : this checklist document does not define or interpret the meaning of the agreements. • ip rights assigned by the countries and regions where the seller resides and where an app is available. sellers are fully responsible for submitting application content and registration information that do not infringe on any ip rights. for help, see references. before submitting a registered application, you must ensure that: • your binary files do not contain content that can result in infringement. • your registration does not contain information that can result in infringement. not allowed under any circumstances applications with the following content cannot be accepted. • content and advertisement specified in the app distribution guide • content that can mislead users in the purpose, features, or value of the application • content that can mislead users that the app or its registering person or entity has a relationship with or endorsement by samsung when there is no relationship or endorsement • the term ‘bitcoin’ when it is not essential to describe the application not allowed without licensing agreements applications with the following content cannot be accepted when seller portal registration does not include licensing agreements from all holders of content ip rights. individuals • content protected by the personality rights of any person, whether or not they are a celebrity, who is alive or has died less than 70 years ago (such as names, signatures, likenesses, brand identifiers, family crests, coats of arms, and persona elements) • products of any person, whether or not they are a celebrity, who is alive or has died less than 70 years ago (such as art and literature) institutions • public and private institution content that is not in the public domain (such as names, logos, and insignias of governmental and nongovernmental organizations and public offices, military organizations, and universities) note : properly presented national flags are allowed without agreements. • coats of arms and other brand identifiers companies • brand identifiers of samsung, watch manufacturers, and other companies note : common words, even part of ip right protected phrases (such as the word ‘roadster’ in the trademarked phrase ‘tesla roadster’) are allowed without agreements. • designs inspired by products made by samsung, watch manufacturers, and other companies note : official samsung mobile device and other product images available at samsungmobilepress.com and those images overlaid with screenshots of your apps are allowed without agreements. sports and media • professional and nonprofessional sports club content (such as names, logos, designs, colors) • professional and non-professional sports league content (such as fifa, world cup, and olympic names, logos, designs, colors) • sports player content (such as names, signatures, likenesses, and persona elements) • movie, television show, game guide, and fan-made content (such as names and images) • media celebrity content (such as names, signatures, likenesses, and persona elements) physical products • physical products (such as automobiles, motorcycles, cameras, handbags) that present company brand identifiers note : physical products that do not present brand identifiers are allowed without agreements. architecture • privately funded buildings with ip rights (such as dubai creek tower, illuminated eiffel tower) note : content of public or privately funded buildings visible in the background of a public space that do not imply an association with the app are allowed without agreements. galaxy store badge tags • galaxy store badge tags that contain brand names, even brand names that are common public words (such as band-aid and velcro) miscellaneous • references to applications (such as app names in the titles and descriptions of other apps) • peer-to-peer (p2p) applications • images from stock image websites or companies • recently filmed works and creations based on those works not allowed without proof applications with the following content cannot be accepted when seller portal registration does not include the specified proof documentation. • content that can imply an application or its registering individual or entity has a relationship with or an endorsement by samsung must have proof there is a relationship or endorsement (such as winning a samsung developer conference award). • non-common public domain content must have proof of being in the public domain. references https://helpx.adobe.com/kr/stock/contributor/help/known-image-restrictions.html https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/generic_trademark https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/universal_copyright_convention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/berne_convention http://wiki.gettyimages.com/ https://www.wipo.int/branddb/en/index.jsp# https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/copyright-architectural-photos.html

the samsung developer team is excited to sponsor the maiden voyage of the xamarin developer summit july 11-12 in houston, texas. get 25% off registration with code xdsamsung25. jay cho, a software engineer on the tizen .net team speaks thursday on xamarin.forms and how they’re used to build apps on our wearable devices and smart tvs. he’ll teach those in attendance how to get started and will also show live demos of the tools and sample apps running on a galaxy watch. on friday, the samsung developer program (sdp) team hosts a hands-on workshop on how to build tizen apps for galaxy watch devices, including .net apps. you’ll meet cristian lewczyk, a partner support engineer, and diego lizarazo rivera, a developer evangelist for sdp. cristian and diego will walk you through how to: create a sample app with tizen studio deploy it to an emulator for testing run the finished app on a real device. the workshop concludes with a challenge to create an app for a galaxy watch, and will prepare you for the galaxy store submission process. registration for the workshop is required in advance. we’re also hosting a lounge where you can meet members of the sdp team and get hands-on with some of our latest products. stop by during a break to get your questions answered and learn more about the samsung developer program. we can’t wait to see you; it’ll be a blast!

session enterprise, tizen tizen everywhere this session highlighted samsung's direction and goals for the enterprise and b2b markets, focused on taking tizen to the next level on so many platforms. various enterpriser displays based on tizen and solutions suitable for business purposes will always be together. tizen enterprise platform will provide all the technology infrastructure you need, including the samsung developers portal for b2b for developer support and the samsung apps tv seller office for custom application support in your own business. after announcing "tizen open" at sdc in 2019, samsung established licensing system to provide tizen tv os to other tv makers. in order for partners to develop tizen tv products faster, samsung prepared reference tv solution. in europe, australia, türkiye, tizen tvs have been released sequentially through more than 10 tv brands since september 22. speakers charles lim samsung electronics ryan kim samsung electronics mateusz obidzinski samsung electronics juneho lee samsung electronics related video video link video link tizen licensing in sdc 2021

speaker list check out the speakers who joined us at sdc22 to share their experience and expertise jonghee han vice chairman, ceo and head of device experience divisionsamsung electronics sebastian seung president & head of samsung researchsamsung electronics yongjae kim evp, deputy head of r&d team, visual display businesssamsung electronics sang kim svp & head of product & marketing, samsung electronics america samsung electronics jaeyeon jung vp & head of smartthings, mobile experience businesssamsung electronics sally hyesoon jeong vp & head of framework r&d group, mobile experience businesssamsung electronics mark benson head of smartthingssmartthings inc. anil yadav head of bixby lab, samsung research americasamsung electronics shin baik principal engineer of security team, mobile experience businesssamsung electronics alissa dornbos engineering managersmartthings inc. allan devantier vp of audio research and developmentsamsung electronics barry holland product directorsamsung electronics byungkwon kang principal s/w engineersamsung electronics charis ryu engineersamsung electronics charles lim tizen licensing pmsamsung electronics chulheon jeong software engineer, framework r&d groupsamsung electronics david kwon director of partnership & business developmentsamsung electronics david lee evp, head of samsung nextsamsung electronics donghun shin senior s/w engineersamsung electronics eldad persky vp of product & engineering, ads & datasamsung electronics eun-ae cho software project leadersamsung electronics evan artis senior product managersmartthings inc. haeyoung jun principal engineer, standards research teamsamsung electronics heinz pabst software project leadersamsung electronics hobum kwon corporate vp, platform teamsamsung electronics hosub lee software engineersamsung electronics hyun kim head of core ux groupsamsung electronics hyunju shin principal engineer, platform teamsamsung electronics hyunseok cha principal s/w engineersamsung electronics jaeho ko ux designersamsung electronics james pak corporate vp, b2b partnershipssamsung electronics jeoungju kim engineersamsung electronics jidon yeo principal engineer, data research teamsamsung electronics jihye song staff engineer, s/w architectsamsung electronics jinhoon cho ux designersamsung electronics jinwoo song principal engineer, data research teamsamsung electronics jiwon kim staff engineersamsung electronics john alioto director, developer relationssamsung electronics john couling senior vp, entertainmentdolby laboratories joohwan kim principal engineersamsung electronics joosun moon principal ux designersamsung electronics josh ross content strategist, core ux groupsamsung electronics juneho lee principal s/w engineersamsung electronics kianoosh karami director of engineeringsmartthings inc. kihwan kim corporate vpsamsung electronics kyle sporre principal product managersmartthings inc. kyunghoon han ux designersamsung electronics laura morinigo web developer advocatesamsung electronics mateusz obidzinski b2b technical support engineersamsung electronics matthew reyes pm, mobile gamingdolby laboratories minji lee wallet strategy groupsamsung electronics philip leung partnerships managersamsung electronics richard song director, b2b partnershipsamsung electronics robert white sr. directorsamsung electronics roger kibbe senior developer evangelistsamsung electronics ryan kim principal s/w engineer, tizen enterprise spmsamsung electronics sangin lee software engineer, smartthingssamsung electronics sanguk jeon head of core platform labsamsung electronics sean ginevan head of digital partnership, android enterprisegoogle llc sean park senior product manager, experience planning groupsamsung electronics seongnam oh senior technical director, video systemssamsung electronics soowan kim technical product manager, visual s/w r&d groupsamsung electronics soyoung lee principal engineersamsung electronics sungchull lee software engineer, health s/w r&d groupsamsung electronics surojit chatterjee chief product officercoinbase taeho kgil corporate vp, security & privacy teamsamsung electronics wojciech kajder head of part/b2b product and program managementsrpol/samsung youngsang shin principal engineersamsung electronics yunsik bae staff engineer, connectivity r&d groupsamsung electronics

we continue to celebrate the top performing apps in creativity, quality, design, and innovation, as we interview winners of our best of galaxy store awards. next in our blog series, we feature matteo dini. matteo dini, founder and ceo of "matteo dini md", shares with us how he manages to maintain a high level of quality and craftsmanship with his watch face designs, many of which boast five star ratings, the importance of developing a recognizable brand, and how the galaxy store badge has played an integral role in his marketing strategy how did you first get into designing watch faces? at the end of 2016, i bought a samsung gear s3 watch, and that’s when i started designing watch faces. at first, it was just for fun, something i did to explore the easily approachable software “galaxy watch designer” (now “galaxy watch studio"). in the spring of 2017, i started publishing some of my watch faces on the galaxy store, and i realized that people were really interested in them, therefore i decided to continue publishing my designs. as one of our more seasoned and successful designers, can you share some key features of a good watch face design? in my opinion, a good watch face design has to be easily readable. it should also feature well thought out colors and shades that match together, and the layouts shouldn’t be too complex. this is the key to attracting a wider range of customers. with your broad experience as a watch face designer, do you still experience technical or design hurdles when designing a watch face? there really is no limit to improvement when it comes to graphic design. the real obstacle to overcome is the lack of new ideas. there should always be new inspirations about how to improve the design aspect of the watch faces. there have been, and still are moments, when i find myself stuck, even for several whole days, before getting to a final result. after creating several watch faces and crossing paths with so many great creations from other designers, pushing the creative limit further can be really hard, especially on a 360x360 screen. however, when i finally find the right path that can lead me to a new good project, i feel so enthusiastic and passionate about my job that it is definitely worth it. where the technical side is concerned, hopefully i’ll be able to add some new features that leverage samsung’s hardware-and-software evolutions. your brand “matteo dini md” is well known in the watch face community. how important is creating your own brand? having a well-recognizable brand is the key to being well known. your brand identifies your work, that is undeniable. finding the perfect name for my brand was not the easiest choice to make. when i started publishing my work on the galaxy store i was really indecisive about leaving my real name-surname. i even thought of inventing a new name from scratch, but then i decided to go for matteo dini, since it gave me the impression of a more personal brand, and i think it worked, or at least i hope so. my brand “matteo dini md” is a legally registered brand in the us and in europe. how do you come up with new designs to support the continued growth and evolution of your brand? ideas can come from seasons, from highly- or poorly-inspired periods, and obviously from market research. “there are no rules” is the only rule. sometimes a design can sprout from a tiny detail that we come to notice in a random object, not necessarily a watch. in a certain way it’s kind of a meditation process - it’s mind work. at the moment, there are two of us designing watch faces for “matteo dini md”, my brother-in-law luca canaletti and i. together we try to imagine how the product could potentially look, and we then sketch some drafts on paper or directly on the software. your designs are highly rated on the galaxy store which speaks to the quality and craftsmanship of your work. how do you achieve such great quality with your designs? to be honest, when it comes to my work i’m a very strict critic. i always detect some enormous flaws, and i hardly find myself truly and completely satisfied with my work. apart from that, the thing luca and i focus on is quality. to achieve that, we try to include as many details as possible and to test our watch faces for several days, in different light and weather conditions, in order to get a good result. but, as i was saying before, there is no limit to improvement, and we learn something new every day. it’s evident that you understand the market and what users want. how much does user feedback factor into the designs you create? are there other factors? i pay so much attention to user feedback. i obviously cannot design something that works for each of them, however i tend to use their suggestions to improve my watch faces and to meet their needs and tastes. being on the galaxy store has provided me with knowledge about people’s taste, and i’m constantly trying to keep several watch faces on the store that can satisfy a wide range of consumers, both young people and adults. i also keep an eye on market trends and all the cutting-edge news that comes out. you employ various marketing strategies, including third-party watch face reviews from jibberjab, social media promotion, free trials, contests, and giveaways. how important is marketing your designs to becoming a successful seller? what tips can you share? the galaxy store is introducing more and more new content every day, so it is really fundamental to promote one’s projects on other marketing channels as well. this is why i employ all those things you mentioned, in order to drive awareness and visibility of my brand on the galaxy store. the paramount thing to do is to create a well-recognizable brand identity, in order to be easily found on the store. i created my brand’s accounts on all the most important social media platforms in order to gain followers and to have a community to directly communicate with. this is fundamental, it’s the starting point for any marketing strategy. how does the galaxy store badge support your marketing strategy? galaxy store badge is, without a doubt, an excellent tool. it generates customized short urls, it can monitor all the clicks you get (which is important for statistics and promotions), and it also gives you the opportunity to use an official samsung official logo, which can be really helpful when it comes to marketing strategies. how has the samsung developer program supported your journey and growth as a watch face designer? the sdp team has always been very helpful and professional, promptly answering my request for technical assistance and solving my problems. they always keep us up-to-date about samsung news and share detailed studies about technical topics. they really support our work. it is also important to follow the dedicated forum. the forum allows us to ask questions and get answers from samsung and the developer community, i was very pleased to meet the team in person, twice actually, at the 2018 and 2019 editions of the samsung developer conference. thank you for the question; since you mentioned it, i really want to publicly thank the sdp team for their amazing work. as the winner of samsung best of galaxy store awards 2019 for “best watch designer (big brand)”, what advice do you have for new designers looking to create a successful watch face business? besides being a watch face designer, i’m a technology enthusiast and my first step was studying the product (samsung gear watch / galaxy watch / galaxy watch active), wearing it 24/7 for several months. i got the full user experience, before becoming a designer. passion and patience are fundamental, new designers shouldn’t get discouraged if the big results don’t come right away. they should keep focusing on finding their style and on trying to improve it day after day. the results will come eventually. what is next for matteo dini md watch faces? at the moment we are focusing on watch face development and we are trying to improve ourselves in order to be ready when samsung shares its plans on any new products or product updates. we want to thank matteo for sharing compelling insights on watch face design and tips on becoming a successful designer with a recognizable brand. be sure to check out matteo dini md’s watch face portfolio, and download your favorite in the galaxy store. we recommend this one. follow us on twitter at @samsung_dev for more developer interviews as well as tips for building games, apps, and more for the galaxy store. find out more about our best of galaxy store awards. designing a watch face for galaxy watch running wear os powered by samsung? check out this code lab about creating a watch face using tag expressions in watch face studio.