Hartmut Esslinger (born 5 June 1944) is a

German-American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

industrial designer 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 manufactu ...

and inventor. He is best known for founding the design consultancy

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...

, and his work for Apple Computers in the early 1980s.

Life and career

Esslinger was born in Beuren ( Simmersfeld), in Germany's

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

.Esslinger, Hartmut (2009). ''A Fine Line: How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future of Business'' Jossey-Bass, At age 25, Esslinger finished his studies at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Schwäbisch Gmünd in

Schwäbisch Gmünd Schwäbisch Gmünd (, until 1934: Gmünd; Swabian: ''Gmẽẽd'' or ''Gmend'') is a city in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. With a population of around 60,000, the city is the second largest in the Ostalb district and ...

. After facing vicious criticism of a radio clock he designed while in school and the disapproval of his mother (who burned his sketchbooks), he started his own design agency in 1969, ''Esslinger Design'', later renamed Frogdesign. For his first client, German

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

consumer electronics company

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 ...

, 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 , 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 professiona ...

- 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 The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York. In 1976, Esslinger also worked for

Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly known as Louis Vuitton (, ), is a French high-end luxury fashion house and company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its products, ranging from luxury bags and leather ...

. 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 Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...

Start-Up" into a global brand. Setting up shop in California for the first time, Esslinger and Frogdesign created 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 t ...

" which was applied to all Apple product lines from 1984 to 1990, commencing with the Apple IIc and including the

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

computer. The original Apple IIc was acquired by the Whitney Museum of Art in New York and ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' voted it Design of the Year. Soon after Steve Jobs' departure, Esslinger broke his own contract with Apple and followed Jobs to

NeXT Next may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare * ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage * '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film Lit ...

. Other major client engagements include Lufthansa's global design and brand strategy,

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 ...

's corporate identity and software user interface, Microsoft Windows branding and user interface design, Siemens,

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...

, Olympus, HP,

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorol ...

and

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 en ...

. In December 1990 Esslinger was featured on the cover of ''

BusinessWeek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

'', 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 ''Rebel Without a Cause'' is a 1955 American coming-of-age drama film about emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers. Filmed in the then recently introduced CinemaScope format and directed by Nicholas Ray, it offered both social com ...

, which Esslinger has described as his first American movie and a cultural inspiration. Esslinger is a founding Professor of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design,

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 betwe ...

, and since 2006 he is a Professor for convergent industrial design at the University of Applied Arts in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. In 1996, Esslinger was awarded an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

of Fine Arts by the Parsons School of Design,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. 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

* 1969 Bundespreis Gute Form (Federal Design Award) - German Design Council * 1991 Lucky Strike Design Award - Raymond Loewy Foundation * 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

References

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

External links

A Fine Line: How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future of Business by Hartmut Esslinger

Hartmut Esslinger's Amazing Apple Mac Prototypes
via ''

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...

''
Presenter at Cusp Conference 2009
{{DEFAULTSORT:Esslinger, Hartmut 1944 births German industrial designers Living people People from Calw (district) Apple Inc. employees Design schools in Germany Academics of the University of Applied Arts Vienna

Life and career

Notable awards and accomplishments

Further reading

References

External links