frog (styled as ''"frog, part of Capgemini Invent"'') is a global creative and design consultancy founded in 1969 by

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advance of the manufactur ...

Hartmut Esslinger 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 Computers in the early 1980s. Life and career Esslinger was born in ...

in Mutlangen, Germany, where it was initially named “esslinger design”. Soon after the company moved to Altensteig, Germany, and then opened a new studio in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was esta ...

, and ultimately to its current headquarters in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. The company has studios in North and Central America, Europe, and Asia. The name was changed to frog design in 1982 (the name originating from an

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

for Esslinger's home country, the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

; it was originally styled exclusively in lower-case as an expression of its belief in a democratic place of work, where ideas are openly and freely shared, and in opposition to the capitalization of

nouns A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, ...

in German). The brand was once again restyled as frog in 2011 to signify an expanded portfolio of services that included strategy and organization activation. The company was acquired by

Capgemini Capgemini SE is a multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company, headquartered in Paris, France. History Capgemini was founded by Serge Kampf in 1967 as an enterprise management and data processing company. The comp ...

in 2021 and is now a part of Capgemini Invent.

History

The firm's first designs, in 1969, were for

WEGA WEGA is a German audio and video manufacturer, manufacturing some of Germany's earliest radio receivers. History WEGA, pronounced "Vega", was founded as ''Wuerttembergische Radio-Gesellschaft mbh'' in Stuttgart, Germany in the year 1923. In 1975 ...

, a German radio and television manufacturer that was later acquired by

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

. frog continued to work for Sony and designed the

Trinitron Trinitron was Sony's brand name for its line of aperture-grille-based CRTs used in television sets and computer monitors. One of the first truly innovative television systems to enter the market since the 1950s, the Trinitron was announced in ...

television receiver in 1975, and several editions of the Walkman. Their first designs for computer manufacturers were for proprietary systems by CTM (Computertechnik Müller) in 1970 and Diehl Data Systems in 1979. More prominent are the designs for

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...

, starting with the case of the portable Apple IIc, introducing the

Snow White design language The Snow White design language is an industrial design language which was developed by Hartmut Esslinger's Frog Design. Used by Apple Computer from 1984 to 1990, the scheme has vertical and horizontal stripes for decoration, ventilation, and to ...

used by Apple during 1984–1990, and continuing with several Macintosh models. The firm designed the

NeXT Computer NeXT Computer (also called the NeXT Computer System) is a workstation computer that was developed, marketed, and sold by NeXT Inc. It was introduced in October 1988 as the company's first and flagship product, at a price of , aimed at the hig ...

in 1987 and Sun's

SPARCstation The SPARCstation, SPARCserver and SPARCcenter product lines are a series of SPARC-based computer workstations and servers in desktop, desk side (pedestal) and rack-based form factor configurations, that were developed and sold by Sun Microsystem ...

s in 1989. More recently, the firm is known for its work with

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energy ...

(2010-2015) and on Disney's Magicbands and

MyMagic+ MyMagic+ is a suite of technologies first implemented at the Walt Disney World Resort that enable a number of services and enhancements to guests of the resort. Influenced by wearable computing and the concept of the Internet of Things, the sys ...

(launched 2015). In August 2004, the company announced that

Flextronics International Flex Ltd. (previously known as Flextronics International Ltd. or Flextronics) is an American Singaporean-domiciled multinational diversified manufacturing company. It is the third largest global electronics manufacturing services (EMS), origi ...

, a large electronics manufacturing services provider, was taking an equity stake in the company for approximately $25 million; in 2006, frog was part of a deal through which private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) acquired nine of Flextronic's assets. frog was later acquired by engineering firm Aricent, which itself was acquired by Altran, which in 2019 was in turn acquired by its current parent company, the consulting firm

. Today, frog is organized under the “Capgemini Invent” umbrella, integrating staff from Fahrenheit 212, Idean, June21, and Capgemini Invent into the frog brand.

Gallery

File:WEGA Studio 3214 Hifi und Telefunken L 250.jpg,

Studio 3214 Hifi () File:Thinktank Birmingham - object 1986S03911.00001(1).jpg, Sony Walkman WM-2 () File:Apple IIc with monitor.jpg, Apple IIc and the

() File:NeXTcube.jpg,

NeXTcube The NeXTcube is a high-end workstation computer developed, manufactured, and sold by NeXT from 1990 until 1993. It superseded the original NeXT Computer workstation and is housed in a similar cube-shaped magnesium enclosure, designed by frog desig ...

() File:DisneyMagicdepartsCanaveral.JPG,

Disney Magic ''Disney Magic'' is the first cruise ship owned and operated by Disney Cruise Line, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. She has 11 public decks, can accommodate 2,700 passengers in 875 staterooms, and has a crew of approximately 950. The int ...

() File:SAP-Logo.svg,

SAP Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separ ...

Corporate Identity and digital design language () File:TouchTunes (7984914359).jpg, Touchtunes () File:Let the Magic begin -disney -magicbands (22988341716).jpg, Disney Magicband and

()

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Frog Design Inc. Industrial design firms Design companies of the United States Companies based in San Francisco Design companies established in 1969 1969 establishments in West Germany German companies established in 1969 International management consulting firms

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links