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INTERVIEW BAT designer enhances glo HYPER with 'emotional functionality'
To the principal design lead of British American Tobacco (BAT) in the United Kingdom, design is about more than how a heated tobacco device looks. He distills emotion from sensory experiences and etches it into the electronic device, turning it into a pleasing memento for users.
Lee Ju-suek, principal design lead at BAT / Courtesy of BAT Rothmans
By Ko Dong-hwan
Heated tobacco innovates in shape, color, material
With BAT’s flagship heated tobacco brand glo reaching more than 10 million users across 33 global markets since 2024, the company’s principal design lead, Lee Ju-suek, has been working to create a device with broader universal appeal — what he calls an “emotional device.”
BAT’s glo was first launched in Japan in 2016, followed by Korea and other markets the following year. Since then, the product has evolved into an amalgam of the company’s latest technologies and its most carefully considered design elements. BAT attributes this evolution to Lee’s design philosophy, which prioritizes consistency of experience over form, creating a design identity that is functional yet warm, minimalist yet distinctive.
The most striking example of Lee’s design principles can be found in the dial of the glo HYPER lineup. The TasteSelect dial, introduced with the glo HYPER series launched last year, features an ergonomic rotating mechanism that allows users to switch easily between standard and boost modes. The dial’s serrated pattern — where it meets the user’s thumb — was refined in 0.1-millimeter increments, echoing the precision craftsmanship of a watch crown.
“The dial is more than just a device for functional control. It serves as a medium through which users can emotionally interact with the product. By rotating the dial, users intuitively understand the product and recognize its functions not through technology but through the memory of their hands,” Lee said in an interview with The Korea Times.
BAT Rothmans' glo HYPER pro won the 2025 iF Design Award in the product design category. Courtesy of BAT Rothmans
As part of the lineup, glo HYPER pro won the 2025 iF Design Award in the product design category, following its receipt of the 2024 European Product Design Award in the consumer electronics category. Lee said the honors recognized the device’s “emotional functionality.”
Before joining BAT’s global design team in London in 2020, Lee graduated from the Samsung Art & Design Institute in Korea and worked on Samsung Electronics’ design strategy team in Seoul. He later joined Felix Heck Studio, a Munich-based design firm, before moving to Samsung Design Europe in London.
Lee now leads BAT’s heated tobacco product design direction.
Lee’s ultimate goal is to design “experiences beyond products.” One of the key concepts he is pursuing is color-material-finish, and he predicts that metal substitutes, fabrics and transparent finishes — rarely seen in electronic devices — will be increasingly adopted.
“In the future, design experiences may begin not from technology but from materials. Through glo, I want to design new emotions for the world and show that design can leave an emotional resonance in everyday life,” Lee said