A 2021 Beats and A-Cold-Wall collaboration on Studio3 Wireless headphones
Apple has recruited A-Cold-Wall designer Samuel Ross to work on its Beats brand, a move that may change the appearance of future releases from the personal audio brand.
Ross is a British artist and designer who operates the street fashion brand A-Cold-Wall and the industrial design company SR_A, who has previously worked with Apple on a limited-edition Beats Studio3 Wireless release. Now, Ross is to take a bigger role in shaping the future of Beats itself.
Apple has reportedly signed Ross up to be the first Principal Design Consultant for Beats, reports Fast Company. A new role within Apple and Beats, the position effectively gives Ross access to its design teams and resources, as well as its products.
The way Apple has tapped Ross is reportedly similar to other big design moves by major companies. This includes the late Virgil Abloh, a designer Ross worked for as an assistant, who was recruited by Nike to work on some of its intellectual property.
One of the reasons for Ross' involvement is due to needing to appeal to younger generations. Beats CMO Chris Thorne said the company's products must "have the right design, the colors right, the messaging and positioning That's something that Samuel is so good with for the brand."
With Ross a cross-medium designer who works in many different mediums, as well as industrial design language, he seems to be a good fit for Beats in general. However, he has already spent a long time working with the brand.
Following the Studio3 collaboration, Ross moved on to produce an SR_A version of Beats Powerbeats Pro, which included creating a music magazine and alternative packaging that used organically-formed recycled wood. That product was not put on sale but was distributed to select influencers.
He has also built relationships with both the Beats and Apple design teams over the years, but it took until 2023 for Beats to move to secure his talent.
"It went so well and designers enjoy working with him so much, they were almost asking for more," said Thorne. "We didn't set out to say we wanted to bring in someone from the outside, who should it be?'"
The designer's intentions for Beats will potentially involve more differentiation from Apple's own design ideas.
"How specific, refined, and organized the Apple way of developing products and communicating aesthetic is the perfect [baseline] to enable Beats some opportunity to develop a new behavior, cadence, and aesthetic, perhaps in more contrast to it," Ross reasons. "I do have quite a specific opinion of what that is for Beats: It's bold, confident, and needs to bear some risk."
