Episode 8 - Design for Life with Hartmut Essingler, Founder Frog Design

Leading with Gratitude with Chester Elton

I am beyond delighted to be joined by Hartmut Esslinger to talk about "Design for Life"
In 1969, Hartmut started design agency, Frogdesign. He created the first "full plastics" color TV and HiFi series "Wega system 3000". His work for Wega won him instant international fame. In 1974, Esslinger was hired by Sony and 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 chosen by the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In December 1990 Esslinger was featured on the cover of BusinessWeek, the only living designer thus honored since Raymond Loewy in 1934.

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 Start-Up" into a global brand. Esslinger and Frogdesign created the "Snow White design language" which was applied to all Apple product lines from 1984 to 1990. 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. Esslinger also worked for Louis Vuitton.

Esslinger is founding Professor of the Hochschule fuer Gestaltung in Karlsruhe, Germany and since 2006 he is 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 Indus

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