Hartmut Esslinger

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Hartmut Esslinger
Born
Hartmut Esslinger

(1944-06-05)5 June 1944 (age 78)
Beuren (Simmersfeld), Baden-Württemberg, Germany
NationalityGerman/American
Alma materHochschule für Gestaltung Schwäbisch Gmünd
Occupation(s)Founder, frogdesign
Years active1969–2006
SpousePatricia Roller

Hartmut Esslinger (born 5 June 1944) is a German-American industrial designer and inventor. He is best known for founding the design consultancy frog, and his work for Apple Computer in the early 1980s.

Life and career[edit]

Apple IIc, the design of which was based on the Snow White design language developed by Esslinger and his team at frog
NeXTcube

Esslinger was born in Beuren (Simmersfeld), in Germany's Black Forest.[1] At age 25, Esslinger finished his studies at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Schwäbisch Gmünd in Schwäbisch Gmünd. After facing vicious criticism of a radio clock he designed while in school and the disapproval of his mother (who burned his sketchbooks),[2] he started his own design agency in 1969, Esslinger Design, later renamed Frogdesign. For his first client, German avant-garde consumer electronics company Wega, he designed the first color TV without a wood frame and the Wega HiFi System 3000, which won him instant international fame.[2] In 1974, Esslinger was hired by Sony – Sony also acquired Wega shortly after – and he was instrumental in creating a global design image for Sony, especially with the Sony Trinitron and personal music products. The Sony-Wega Music System Concept 51K was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 1976, Esslinger also worked for Louis Vuitton.

In 1982 he entered into an exclusive $2,000,000 per year contract with Apple Computer to create a design strategy which transformed Apple from a Silicon Valley startup into a global brand. Setting up shop in California for the first time, Esslinger and Frogdesign created the Snow White design language, which was applied to all Apple product lines from 1984 to 1990, starting with the Apple IIc and including the Macintosh II computer.[3] The original Apple IIc was acquired by the Whitney Museum of Art in New York and Time voted it Design of the Year. Soon after Steve Jobs' departure, Esslinger broke his own contract with Apple and followed Jobs to NeXT. Other major client engagements include Lufthansa's global design and brand strategy, SAP's corporate identity and software user interface, Microsoft Windows branding and user interface design, Siemens, NEC, Olympus, HP, Motorola and General Electric.

In December 1990 Esslinger was featured on the cover of BusinessWeek, the only living designer thus honored since Raymond Loewy in 1934. The cover included the headline "Rebel with a cause," referencing his controversial personality and desire to be seen as a non-conformist within the field of design, as well as the movie Rebel Without a Cause, which Esslinger has described as his first American movie and a cultural inspiration.[4][5][6][7][8][9]

Esslinger is a founding Professor of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, Germany, and since 2006 he is a Professor for convergent industrial design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria. In 1996, Esslinger was awarded an honorary doctorate of Fine Arts by the Parsons School of Design, New York City. Since 2012 Esslinger has served as a DeTao Master of Industrial Design with The Beijing DeTao Masters Academy (DTMA) in Shanghai, China.

In 2009 Esslinger published A Fine Line in which he explores business solutions that are environmentally sustainable and contribute to an enduring global economy.

Notable awards and accomplishments[edit]

  • 1969 Bundespreis Gute Form (Federal Design Award) – German Design Council
  • 1991 Lucky Strike Design Award – Raymond Loewy Foundation[10]
  • 1993 Design Team of the Year – Red Dot Design Awards
  • 1996 Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts – Parsons School of Design
  • 2013 Honorary Royal Designer for Industry – Royal Society of Arts
  • 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award – Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards
  • 2017 World Design Medal – World Design Organization

Further reading[edit]

  • Hartmut Esslinger und frogdesign. von Hartmut Esslinger und Uta Brandes, 1992 Steidl Verlag, Göttingen, ISBN 3-88243-215-2
  • Frog: Form Follows Emotion (Cutting Edge S.) von Fay Sweet, 1999 Thames and Hudson Ltd., ISBN 0-500-01917-7
  • Frogdesign von Hartmut Esslinger und Volker Fischer, 2000 Edition Axel Menges, ISBN 3-930698-05-6
  • A Fine Line: How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future of Business von Hartmut Esslinger, 2009 Jossey-Bass, ISBN 0-470-45102-5
  • Nye, Sean. "Hartmut Esslinger." In Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present, vol. 5, edited by R. Daniel Wadhwani. German Historical Institute. Last modified April 29, 2015. http://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=236
  • Keep It Simple: The Early Design Years of Apple. by: Hartmut Esslinger, January 2014, Arnoldsche Verlagsanstalt ISBN 978-3897904088 ASIN B00JYHPHQM

References[edit]

  1. ^ Esslinger, Hartmut (2009). A Fine Line: How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future of Business Jossey-Bass, ISBN 0-470-45102-5
  2. ^ a b Nye, Sean. "Hartmut Esslinger." In Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present, vol. 5, edited by R. Daniel Wadhwani. German Historical Institute. Last modified April 29, 2015. http://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=236
  3. ^ Owen Edwards (November 12, 1999). "Form Follows Emotion". Forbes. Retrieved January 27, 2010.
  4. ^ Ku Petz, Andrej. "On Stage: Hartmut Esslinger".
  5. ^ Katz, Barry (2011-04-20). Hartmut Esslinger – Oral History. Mountain View, California: Computer History Museum.
  6. ^ Nye, Sean (2015). Wadhwani, Daniel (ed.). "Hartmut Esslinger". Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies.Volume 5: 1945-Today. Washington D.C.: German Historical Institute. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
  7. ^ "Hartmut Esslinger: frog Went A-Sellin'". Bloomberg.com. 2004-09-20. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
  8. ^ Professor, The (2014-11-27). "The Professor, Lunch and the Essence of Hartmut Esslinger". The Professor / Steven Skov Holt. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
  9. ^ "Hartmut Esslinger Audio Interview on Design Matters". Design Observer. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
  10. ^ "Raymond Loewy Foundation: 2002 – 1991". www.raymondloewyfoundation.com. Retrieved 22 May 2018.

1. http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2011/10/102743122-05-01-acc.pdf

External links[edit]

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