HTC Snaps up Fashion-Savvy U.S. Design Firm

The same San-Francisco-based firm that designed the HTC Touch Diamond comes on board HTC as its own in-house design team.

Though HTC’s Touch Diamond and Touch Pro smartphones may have been stylistically well-received, the company’s flagship G1 proves that the company still has a long way to go to master fashionable design. The Taiwanese company took a major step in rectifying that on Wednesday with the acquisition of One & Company Design, Inc., a design firm based in San Francisco.

One & Co. has worked with a number of other high-profile consumer electronics companies in the past, including Apple, Dell, Motorola, Plantronics, and Sony. It’s also responsible for HTC’s own iconic Touch Diamond, which its designers dreamed up back in 2006 in its first collaboration with the company.

HTC’s Chief Innovation Office Horace Luke acknowledged the importance of design in improving its products moving forward. “Design is key, it is why you love or hate something,” Luke said in a statement. “Integrating iconic design into HTC products is an inspiring and dynamic challenge that requires a unique combination of consumer insight, creativity, innovation and an appetite to take risks; attributes that embody One & Co.”

HTC did not reveal what it paid for the design firm in the private deal. One & Co. will continue to work with existing clients in additional to its newfound work at HTC.