This is the most beautifully designed TV we've ever seen

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Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec

Even though TV screens have changed radically from CRTs to plasma screens to flat-screen LEDs, the need for mass market appeal made their designs remarkably uniform — flat screens have just gotten flatter over time.

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But last fall, Samsung unveiled a typography-inspired TV, beautifully crafted to look like a serif "I." It's been available in Europe since 2015, and now it's finally coming to the US. You can pre-order the TV from Samsung or the Museum of Modern Art's web store for $1499. The Serif TV is expected to ship on August 6. 

Designed by French brothers Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, the TV is built to be an elegant statement piece alongside being a reasonably sized TV. Take a closer look below:

Drake Baer contributed to an earlier version of this story.

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The Bouroullec brothers tell Tech Insider that the project started with wanting to move away from the "ultra-thin screen on a base" style that dominates high-end TVs.

Flat Screen TVs
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The ultra-thin style reduced weight and volume. But the TVs themselves became more and more coolly technical, and they don't quite fit with the warm qualities of many homes.

Watching Television
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The Serif, they say, "breaks the expected lines of the recent evolution in the world of TVs."

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Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec

Rather than standing apart from it, the Bouroullecs say the Serif "belongs to the domestic environment."

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Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec
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The Serif is defined by the frame that outlines the screen. Looking at it from the front, you see the screen itself. From the side, there's an iconic "I" style form, with "shelves" at the top and bottom.

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Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec

"We took attention to the design from every point of view, so you can turn around and manipulate it like you would do with any other object," the Bouroullecs say.

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Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec
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After many prototypes, the designers knew they wanted something unified. "The idea was not to be constrain ted to a single material or a single shape," they say, "but the challenge was that every detail and element composing the TV had to fuse harmoniously with the rest."

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Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec

The colors are an ivory white, a midnight blue, and a cardinal red. "Our color choice is more an issue of matching with the place where the TV would land, by fitting white into a white atmosphere or on the opposite by bringing red or dark blue as a contrast."

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Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec
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They wanted the TV to "settle naturally" into a space, like a piece of furniture. "We studied both, the object and the interaction with the space around it, like a typographer does for a letter." they say.

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Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec

The Serif can be placed just about anywhere, on furniture or standing on its own legs. "Moreover, we feel that we have deployed shapes and colors that are breaking from the usual theme of masculine, cutting edge technology and extra-large size," they say. "Our TV is more subtle, it doesn’t exude power. Serif is made to fit in the world we live in."

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Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec
Samsung Design
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