HARTMUT ESSLINGER / FROG DESIGN

Form follows emotion: Hartmut Esslinger was among the first to recognise that the industrial society needs more than pure function –countless consumer goods bear his unique signature.

Pure function gives way to emotion – Hartmut Esslinger’s unique signature has expelled the sober, purely functional appearance from the industrial design of countless consumer goods. He has a message for the industrial society: “form follows emotion”. With his designs for Sony, Apple Computer, Fissler, AEG, Logitech, Microsoft, IBM, Lufthansa, SAP, Dell, Yahoo and many others, this pioneer of German industrial design has celebrated international successes.

Hartmut Esslinger was born in 1944 in Altensteig.  He studied at the University of Design in Schwäbisch Gmünd and formed the ‘Esslinger Design’ company in Altensteig in 1969, from which the frog design design studio emerged in 1982. The company is now amongst the most internationally famous design agencies, with its headquarters in Silicon Valley in California and offices in the USA, China, Germany and Italy. In 1990 Hartmut Esslinger was co-founder of the Karlsruhe college of Design and since 2006 he has been Professor for Industrial Design at the University of Applied Art in Vienna. Frog design designed the successful mylife series for LAUFEN as well as the matching bathroom furniture series, ml-furniture, which is now a classic in the portfolio of the Swiss bathroom specialist. The design language of this series is clear, timeless and universal and harmonises with a great variety of materials, accessories and architectural styles.