Samsung E&A Brand Guidelines: Korea Engineering of 1970, Samsung Engineering & a 2024 Rename

A state engineering firm, bought by Samsung.

Samsung E&A began as Korea Engineering, founded on 20 January 1970. English Wikipedia says the Korean government set it up as the country’s first engineering company, and Korean Wikipedia’s timeline opens that year with a crude-distillation unit for Korea Oil Corporation, the state refiner. Its early work followed the government’s push into heavy and chemical industries: a fertiliser project for Korea General Chemical in 1973, a city-gas project for Seoul in 1975 and an ethylene project for Honam Petrochemical in 1976, according to the Korean timeline.

In 1978 the Samsung group acquired Korea Engineering, both Wikipedia editions say, and the firm became the group’s engineering arm. Korean Wikipedia records that it was named the group’s technology centre in 1983 after bringing in computer-aided design, completed Samsung Semiconductor’s Giheung plant in 1984 and opened a research institute in 1987. In 1988 it won what that timeline calls its first turnkey EPC contracts — engineering, procurement and construction under one contract — at Samsung General Chemicals’ Daesan complex and, abroad, on an ethylene oxide and glycol project in Indonesia.

The name changed to Samsung Engineering in 1991, and the shares were listed on the Korean stock market on 24 December 1996, Korean Wikipedia says. The company still trades on the Korea Exchange, and Korean Wikipedia lists Samsung SDI and related parties as its largest shareholders, with about a fifth of the shares.

From Thai gas to Saudi gas.

Overseas work grew from the 1990s. English Wikipedia dates its first overseas project to 1993, a gas separation plant in Thailand; Korean Wikipedia lists its entry into Asian markets in 1994 with ethylene work for Jilin in China and TPI in Thailand, a refinery contract for Pemex in Mexico in 1999 and, from 2001, a sustained push into Saudi Arabia. It also built at home: the Korean timeline credits it with completing a main stadium for the 2002 World Cup.

In the 2010s the company moved beyond chemical plants into power plants, steel mills and other industrial work, including semiconductor utilities for Samsung Electronics at Pyeongtaek and Hwaseong and plants for Samsung Biologics, according to Korean Wikipedia. English Wikipedia says the company was ill-prepared for several large projects in Saudi Arabia and the UAE in that decade, which led to a heavy loss in 2015.

Its present business lines, as its website sets them out, run from oil and gas processing, refining and petrochemicals to industrial and bio plants, low-carbon energy and water. In 2020 it won the Dos Bocas refinery in Mexico, which Korean Wikipedia calls its largest order to that date, and in 2024 packages 1 and 4 of Saudi Aramco’s Fadhili Gas Increment Program, described in the same source as the largest in its history. The company’s own timeline adds a Malaysian bio-refinery in 2024, which it calls its first entry into sustainable aviation fuel, a stake in the Norwegian hydrogen company Nel ASA in 2025, the WVR Hydrogen Energy Center in the United States, and the SAN-7 project in Saudi Arabia in 2026. The company says it has completed more than 1,000 projects and, at the end of 2025, was working in 48 countries. Korean Wikipedia’s timeline also records its 50th anniversary in 2020 and, in 2024, the start of commercial production at a Smart Piping Shop with the American company Shaw, following an alliance on project development and modular construction that the two signed in 2023, according to the company.

Design and documentation.

Asia’s large construction and engineering groups tend to present themselves through scale rather than ornament. A short wordmark or a set of initials, often in a bold sans and a single strong colour such as red, blue or green, sits above aerial photographs of towers, bridges, dams, plants and rail lines. Larsen & Toubro, for example, greets visitors to its website under its initials, “L&T,” and describes its aim as being “a builder of nations.”

Their websites are usually organised by business rather than by product. Building, civil works, plant and housing appear as separate divisions, and Korean Wikipedia describes Hyundai E&C’s business in exactly those terms: civil engineering, building, housing and plant. L&T adds manufacturing, defence and technology arms alongside construction, according to English Wikipedia.

Housing often carries a second identity. In South Korea the large builders sell apartments under their own consumer brands: Hyundai E&C uses Hillstate and THE H, according to Korean Wikipedia, alongside the company name. Overseas work is presented project by project, with named highways, ports, stadiums and metro lines standing in for a portfolio; a metro extension in Noida, reported by IBEF in November 2026, is a recent example for L&T.

Corporate reporting is part of the identity too. Annual reports, annual reviews and sustainability reports sit alongside the project pages; L&T, for instance, offers an Annual Review for 2026 on its corporate pages. This guide sets out what can be checked about each group — who founded it, who owns it today, and what it builds — and marks clearly what rests on the company’s own word.

E for engineers, A for ahead.

The present name dates from 21 March 2024, when shareholders meeting at the head office in Sangil-dong, in Seoul’s Gangdong district, approved the change from Samsung Engineering to Samsung E&A, Yonhap reported that day. The agency said the E carries several meanings: engineers, the company’s engineering skills, energy, environment, earth and eco, and the idea of an “enabler.” The Dong-A Ilbo reported the same day that the A stands for “Ahead,” and that a new corporate identity would be unveiled the following month.

At the same meeting the company’s president told shareholders it would concentrate on preparing for the energy transition, Yonhap reported, under three strategies: a distinctive way of delivering projects, solving social problems through technology, and a culture of respect, empathy and communication. Its stated vision is to be an engineering company that builds a better future with advanced technology.

On its website the company writes its name in capitals, SAMSUNG E&A, and uses the line “Core to Value.” It tells its history in chapters, from “Pioneering the Engineering Industry” to “Leaping into a New Future,” its brand film is titled “Dear. Da Vinci,” and in 2025 it launched a company character, according to its timeline. It runs country websites for India, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, the UAE and the United States.

For a design guide, Samsung E&A shows how a group engineering company can rename itself around engineers and energy while keeping the group name in front. Compare Samsung C&T, the group’s construction and trading company, and Samsung, the group itself. For this guide we use a deep navy, a teal and a warm white with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Samsung E&A’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.