- Hartmut Esslinger
Hartmut Esslinger (born 1944) is a
German-American industrial designer .At age 25 Esslinger finished studies at the
Fachhochschule Schwäbisch Gmünd inGermany and started his own design agency, later renamedfrog design . For his first client, German avantgarde consumer electronics company Wega, 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 bySony - Sony also acquired Wega shortly after - and he was instrumental in creating a global design image for Sony, especially with the Sony Triniton and personal music products. The Sony-Wega Music System Concept 51K was chosen by theMuseum of Modern Art ,New York .As of 1976, Esslinger also worked for
Louis Vuitton , helping them to become one of the world's leading luxury brands.In 1982 he entered into an exclusive $1,000,000 per year contract with
Apple Computer to create a design strategy which transformed Apple from a "Silicon Valley Start-Up" into a global brand. Setting up shop in California for the first time, Esslinger & frogdesign created the "Snow White design language " which was applied to all Apple product lines from 1984 to 1990, commencing with theApple IIc and including the Macintosh computer. The original IIC was acquired by theWhitney Museum of Art in New York and "Time" voted it Design of the Year. Soon afterSteve Jobs departure, Esslinger broke his own lucrative contract with Apple and followed Jobs toNext Computer .Other essential 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 andGeneral Electric .In December 1990 Esslinger was featured on the cover of "
BusinessWeek " the only living designer thus honored sinceRaymond Loewy in 1934.Esslinger is a founding Professor of the Hochschule fuer Gestaltung inKarlsruhe ,Germany and since 2006 he is a Professor for convergent industrial design at the University of Applied Arts inVienna ,Austria . In 1996, Esslinger was awarded ahonorary doctorate of Fine Arts by theParsons School of Design ,New York .Esslinger is also the owner of the American minor league
soccer club, theSan Jose Frogs , who play in theUSL Premier Development League .See also
*
Frog design
*Apple Industrial Design Group External links
* [http://www.goethe.de/kue/des/dos/dos/dsd/ess/en1854375.htm Hartmut Esslinger and frogdesign – The face of the digital age] via
Goethe-Institut
* [http://www.theapplecollection.com/design/macproto/Hartmut2.html Apple IIc image]
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