Frog Design

Frog Design

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Design firm, industrial design, interaction design, management consulting, innovation management, service design, software engineering, organization design,[1] Venture Management[2]
Founded	1969 (1969)
Founder	Hartmut Esslinger
Headquarters	San Francisco, California , United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Gagandeep Gadri (Global Managing Director)[3]
Owner	Capgemini
Number of employees	2,000+ (2021)[4][5]
Website	https://www.frog.co

frog (styled as "frog, part of Capgemini Invent") is a global creative and design consultancy founded in 1969 by industrial designer Hartmut Esslinger in Mutlangen, Germany, where it was initially named “esslinger design”.[6][7] Soon after the company moved to Altensteig, Germany, and then opened a new studio in Palo Alto, California, and ultimately to its current headquarters in San Francisco, California. 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 for Esslinger's home country, the Federal Republic of Germany; 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 in German[8]). 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 in 2021 and is now a part of Capgemini Invent.[9]

History

The firm's first designs, in 1969, were for WEGA,[10][11] a German radio and television manufacturer that was later acquired by Sony. frog continued to work for Sony and designed the Trinitron television receiver in 1975, and several editions of the Walkman.[12][13] 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, starting with the case of the portable Apple IIc, introducing the Snow White design language used by Apple during 1984–1990, and continuing with several Macintosh models.[14] The firm designed the NeXT Computer in 1987[15] and Sun's SPARCstations in 1989.[16] More recently, the firm is known for its work with General Electric (2010–2015) and on Disney's Magicbands and MyMagic+ (launched 2015).[17]

In August 2004, the company announced that Flextronics International, 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.[18][19] frog was later acquired by engineering firm Aricent, which itself was acquired by Altran, which in 2019 was in turn acquired by the consulting firm Capgemini. Today, frog is organized under the “Capgemini Invent” umbrella, integrating staff from Fahrenheit 212, Idean, and June21 into the frog brand.[20]

frog has had studios across Europe, North America, and Asia for much of its history, and as of 2024, has studios across the globe, including having a presence in Munich, San Francisco, New York, London, Bangalore, and Singapore.[21]

Management

Frog was founded as a small industrial firm by Hartmut Esslinger. Esslinger was the company's first Chief Creative Office (CCO), and with his wife, Patricia Roller (who later served as CEO), frog grew and achieved international prominence.

In 2005, Esslinger and Roller decided to sell frog and leave the company. Following their departure from the firm, Mark Rolston became the next CCO, cementing the company's evolution into the digital experience. In 2013, Hans Neubert became the third CCO of frog. After Neubert's departure and the frog's subsequent acquisition by Capgemini, the company changed the structure of it's executive team, with regional creative heads as part of a globally distribute Design Leadership Team.[22] In parallel to the company's creative leadership, several individuals have been CEO or president, including Harry West (2015-18) and Andy Zimmerman (2013-15 and 2018-21).

Gallery

• 
  WEGA Studio 3214 Hifi (c. 1972)
• 
  Sony Walkman WM-2 (c. 1981)[23][24]
• 
  Apple IIc and the Snow White design language (c. 1984)[25]
• 
  NeXTcube (c. 1990)[26]
• 
  Disney Magic (c. 1998)[27][28]
• 
  SAP Corporate Identity and digital design language (c. 2000)[29]
• 
  Touchtunes (c. 2010)[30]
• 
  Disney Magicband and MyMagic+ (c. 2015)[31][32]

See also

• Apple Industrial Design Group
• RKS Design
• IDEO
• Designworks
• Smart Design

References

1. "Org Design | Enablement | frog, part of Capgemini".
2. "Corporate Venture Builder | Business | frog, part of Capgemini Invent".
3. "frog Global Managing Director".
4. "Creative consultancy frog hits milestone under Capgemini Invent's wings". Consultancy EU. 19 November 2021. Retrieved 2021-11-30.
5. "Capgemini Invent rolls out Frog Design across APAC | Digital". Campaign Asia. Retrieved 2021-10-22.
6. Hartmut Esslinger (27 May 2009). A Fine Line: How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future of Business. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 4–. ISBN 978-0-470-50041-5. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
7. "About frog - LinkedIn". LinkedIn.
8. Hartmut Esslinger (27 May 2009). A Fine Line: How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future of Business. John Wiley & Sons. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-470-50041-5. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
9. "Capgemini Invent boosts its strategy, technology and design services". capgemini.com. 2021-06-23.
10. "Hartmut Esslinger". Industrial Designers Society of America - IDSA. 2020-09-23. Retrieved 2021-09-12.
11. Esslinger, Hartmut (2020-09-05). "Early frog Hero: Paul Hildinger". frogmut.com. Retrieved 2021-09-12.
12. "Frog50 | 50 Years of Design and Innovation". frog design. Retrieved 2021-09-12.
13. Kuang, Cliff (2009-07-17). "Catching Up With Hartmut Esslinger, Design Genius". Fast Company. Retrieved 2021-09-12.
14. Luke Dormehl (2 August 2012). The Apple Revolution: Steve Jobs, the counterculture and how the crazy ones took over the world. Random House. pp. 288–. ISBN 978-1-4481-3136-5. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
15. Owen W. Linzmayer (2004). Apple Confidential 2.0: The Definitive Story of the World's Most Colorful Company. No Starch Press. pp. 209–. ISBN 978-1-59327-010-0. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
16. David Bramston (25 November 2008). Basics Product Design 01: Idea Searching. AVA Publishing. pp. 89–. ISBN 978-2-940373-76-5. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
17. Carr, Austin (2015-04-15). "The Messy Business Of Reinventing Happiness". Fast Company. Retrieved 2021-10-22.
18. Burrows, Peter (April 19, 2006). "One Great Leap for frog design". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on 14 Nov 2021.
19. Bureau, Our Economy (2006-04-18). "KKR buys 85% in Flextronics for $900 million". Business Standard India. Retrieved 2021-11-14. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
20. "A new era for frog and its partners". frog design. Retrieved 2021-09-05.
21. "frog - Studios". frog, part of Capgemini Invent. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
22. "Evolving Creative Leadership at frog". frog, part of Capgemini Invent. Archived from the original on 2022-10-02. Retrieved 2025-01-22.
23. "WM-2 WALKMAN ® (Stereo Cassette Player) / Gallery / Sony Design / Sony". Sony Design. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
24. "Frog Design's Hartmut Esslinger On Design in 1979". Gizmodo. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
25. Bohn, Dieter (2019-06-26). "A photo history of Frog, the company that designed the original Mac". The Verge. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
26. Brownlee, John (2016-02-16). "Remembering The Design Legacy Of Steve Jobs's Other Great Computer Company". Fast Company. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
27. Iovine, Julie V. (1997-01-16). "Now It's Heigh-Ho, Off to Sea We Go". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
28. "Magic: elegant outside, surprisingly ordinary inside". www.travelweekly.com. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
29. Episode 8 - Design for Life with Hartmut Essingler, Founder Frog Design - Leading with Gratitude with Chester Elton, retrieved 2022-01-14
30. LaBarre, Suzanne (2011-03-02). "Frog Creates a Jukebox for People Who've Never Touched a Jukebox". Fast Company. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
31. Carr, Austin (2015-04-15). "The Messy Business Of Reinventing Happiness". Fast Company. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
32. Kuang, Cliff. "Disney's $1 Billion Bet on a Magical Wristband". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2022-01-13.

External links

• Official website