On the opposite end of the spectrum from Sterling’s perky, extroverted designs is YeongKyu Yoo, creative director for the Microsoft Devices team and one of the designers behind HoloLens, Microsoft’s new holographic computing device.

“My design philosophy is pure, meaningful and functional,” Yoo says. His past creations — a floating glass lamp, a white bottle-shaped humidifier, USB flash drives that look like earth tone Chiclets — shun decoration or superfluity. Yoo’s Asian background heavily influences his products: In stillness and emptiness, he finds beauty.

Originally from the idyllic island of Jeju, off the coast of South Korea, Yoo is modest about his journey from college to Samsung, Motorola and Nike — where he helped develop a technology patent that was applied to the FuelBand — and then to LG, iRiver and director of his own company, cloudandco, before coming to Microsoft. Only when he delves into his design approach does he begin to sound like a Zen master.

“Simplicity can be understood as minimalism in the Asian culture,” Yoo said. The concept of emptiness invites viewers to bring their own interpretations to the experience, he explained, attributing this idea to Muji Art Director Kenya Hara, one of his chief influences.

“Less Than Nothing,” a 2006 exhibition in New York of prototypes Yoo built combining traditional bone china and LED displays, epitomized the philosophy of simplicity as beauty. Inspired by the translucency of the bone china material, he built an inconspicuous table that doubled as a speaker, responding to FM and Bluetooth technology and lighting up with muted bursts of color. In another prototype, Yoo built a cappuccino cup whose LED sensor could read the temperature of the liquid inside, and even let you know if it was optimal for the taste of your specific beverage.

While working on HoloLens, Yoo looked to invoke the same approach to the design, creating a simple, elegant experience that belies the complex technology under the hood.

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