frog design: Power To The People

Unless you've been on a desert isle for nearly four decades, innovative designs from industry icon Hartmut Esslinger and his team at Sunnyvale, Calif.-based frog design have likely caught your eye. For example, frog's design for the sleek Apple IIC won a "Design of the Year" award from Time magazine and was exhibited in New York's Whitney Museum of American Art. Or you may have seen frog's innovative designs for Disney Cruise ships or Yamaha motorcycles.

Esslinger founded frog design back in 1969. Today, the firm has 170 employees, annual revenue of $35 million and, since last August, a major investor in the form of Flextronics, the Singapore-based electronics manufacturing services provider. Much of frog's growth has come from designs for portable computers. In 2003, for example, frog announced a partnership with Motorola to create stylish, wearable PCs and wireless communications. Separately, frog came up with the "gelfrog," a notebook computer for students with a green elastic outer "skin" that resembles something from a Spielberg alien flick

What's Esslinger's latest innovation? The buzz is all about the "petfrog," a wireless communication and computing product that incorporates a state-of-the-art PC, PDA, digital media player, camera, content publisher and karaoke machine--all in a device small enough to be tucked in the user's pocket.

Esslinger, who--along with his wife, Patricia Roller--is frog's co-CEO, spoke recently with VARBusiness to discuss the mobile-computing industry's key milestones, blunders and future opportunities.

VB: Thinking back to 20 years ago, did you have any sense that mobile computing would become so important today?

Esslinger: Of course, I knew all this was coming! (Laughs.) But seriously, I knew some big things were going to happen. This is what people wanted. Ultimately, technology will always be about what the people want...Much of what you see in mobile computing these days--the fun colors, the stylish designs--comes from the people. The people want technology to not be boring. So the companies are producing technology that is not boring. Then they get some buying power behind it, and it takes off.

VB: Successes like Apple's iPod appear to support your point. What's it like to be a part of this paradigm shift?

Esslinger: Like a child in a candy store--but it's very healthy candy! As one who has been devoted to design all my life, I feel we have successfully liberated people from what I call "engineer thinking." Instead, we have liberated people to think of technology as a cultural resource.

Companies that have done this have seen their businesses grow as a result. They saw that people didn't want just information and data. People also wanted to be entertained. They wanted compelling interfaces and high usability.

VB: What do you think is the biggest threat to mobile progress?

Esslinger: Cost-cutting. Management strategy today is a defective thing. To replace the fear of failure with the joy of opportunity is what we must strive to accomplish. It's a real problem. The strain on our engineers is truly awful. The global business model is to systemize the product, which makes sense when providing scale to the operation. But at the same time, management must reinvigorate. This starts at the top.

VB: Mobile computers have always been built like clamshells--snap 'em open, snap 'em shut. Do you think this was a design mistake?

Esslinger: No, the clamshell protected the data. Early notebook computers were so sensitive, you couldn't expose them to anything. But over time, the notebook has proved itself an industry standard, just as the SUV has in the auto industry.

That doesn't mean, however, that at some point the clamshell design won't outlive its usefulness. The Boeing 777 is a magnificent airplane. But it's still an airplane...The design will advance to a point where today's standard won't make sense anymore. Designers are doing a lot of this right now, coming up, for example, with flexible battery designs and computers that can change shape. Today's traditional notebook does none of this, of course. In time, today's notebook will no longer be a logical design for users.

VB: You're not only a designer, but also a consumer. If I sat next to you on a New York-to-L.A. flight, what would I see you using?

Esslinger: I need a tote bag on wheels to carry it all: computers, digital cameras, iPods. In fact, I carry not one, but two iPods on board. I also have my Sony Vaio computer. In all, I'll likely have 10 gadgets with me for one plane ride. That's my time to have fun, to try something new. Or I'll bring something that we've been working on at frog design and see how other people on the plane like it. A flight is my time to test all kinds of stuff. We often get our most precious feedback on planes.

VB: Looking ahead 10 years, what do you think people will be toting on airplanes?

Esslinger: Computers will continue to represent freedom and reflect reality. This is nothing new, and it's not unique to technology itself...For example, over the past 400 or 500 years, the Japanese have been looking for new ways to shrink three-dimensional objects. One of the most famous painters there, Katsushika Hokusai, produced a work called "The Great Wave Off Kanagawa." It's essentially a portrait of a fishing boat in front of a great wave. The boat is very small, yet you can sense the power behind it, because the image is so powerful.

Our technology will continue to evolve in the same way. We'll have small devices that use projection technology to produce powerful images and create vivid user interfaces. This is already happening. We're experimenting with lasers to project computer images. In five to six years, you'll see a pocket projector providing our computer images. The screen will no longer be what it is now.

We'll also have computers that will change their shape depending on how the user handles it. Or they will alter their appearance based on the user's mood. If an e-mail sent in anger or disappointment or elation comes into your in-box, the computer could shift its color based on that message.

VB: Which contributions to mobile computing--ones you had nothing to do with--do you most envy?

Esslinger: I'm not a jealous man! I'm happy to see everything that comes out. But I most admire what Steve Jobs has done. He is the incubator of this whole thing. He is a genius, and he's surrounded by great people. He was born with a vision. You cannot go to school and learn everything. Much of it has to be inside you already.

Hartmut Esslinger At A Glance

Born: Beuren, Germany

Career: Designer/founder/co-CEO of frog design since 1969; founding professor, Hochschule fuer Gestaltung in Karlsruhe, Germany

Partial Client List: AEG, Apple Computer, Disney, Louis Vuitton, Lufthansa, Motorola, Sony

Education: Technical University, Stuttgart/Germany; Electronic Engineering College of Design, Schwaebisch Gmuend/Germany; Industrial Design

Personal: Married to Patricia Roller (co-CEO of frog design), father of four

Passions: Music, travel, Porsches, soccer and gadgets

Mantra: "Form follows emotion"