Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Hartmut Esslinger

TAXI >>You own the American minor league soccer club, the San Jose Frogs, and frogdesign. You did a gelfrog laptop concept for New York Times magazine and a petfrog concept for Newsweek Magazine. Why the affection for frogs? Hartmut Esslinger>> At first, “frog” as a company name was just a funny idea –maybe a little bit of a protest against all these sleek “say nothing” names. I grew up in a little Black Forest town surrounded by dense forests, small rivers and zillions of frogs - there are even traffic signs warning of migrating frogs, and our local soccer team was called the “frogs” (Froesche) too. Then, I discovered that the English word “frog” also is an abbreviation of Federal Republic of Germany – that sealed it. TAXI >> Virgin Mobile (website strategy), Victoria’s Secret (retail display system), Tupperware (collapsible containers), Motorola

(wearable technology), Disney (cordless phone and radio), Epson (portable photo viewers) all line up on your clientele list. Does working in such rich diversity of projects with a wide gamut of clients affect the way you design or do business?

Hartmut Esslinger >> Ultimately, designers apply technology in such ways that people’s desires, dreams and needs are fulfilled and the resulting business is a good one. And we have to do it in such ways that human experiences are getting better and more inspiring. So it doesn’t really matter which industry or type of business we are working with, but it does matter in regards to real people. So what is connecting Microsoft’s user interfaces and Disney Cruise Lines Ships, is the human experience. In both cases, the most difficult challenge was to convert new technologies into cultural experiences and to liberate bare-bone technology from being boring and bland.

TAXI >> What does it take to build a successful, fulfilling relationship with your clients?

Hartmut Esslinger>> It takes a lifelong effort to see the world from the client’s side, listen to critique and always deliver more then requested or promised. It also means to convert differences into positive learning and to respect each other. Professionally polite honesty is also vital. But most of all:
one must be successful – and to achieve this together creates a bond beyond just work.

TAXI >>Do you think that design has been liberated from cultural reins? How do you keep yourself knowledgeable on the world’s many cultures?

Hartmut Esslinger>> I believe in old cultures and symbolisms – and I was fortunate to live in many places and to travel the world. I grew up in Europe between four countries, then lived and worked in Japan before I immigrated to the United States. Many things are different, but also many things are the same.

The one element people really care for is identity and respect for good traditions – just look at global food (American fast food is certainly a cultural disgrace) and architecture. We humans are not created to live with boring and anonymous boxes filled with magical technology. No matter what I do, tell my peers, or request my students to learn: without connecting to our cultural histories, design has no future.

TAXI >> Your works have become landmarks in the design industry. What is a personal achievement you’re proudest of?

Hartmut Esslinger >> I am a bit of a puritan – so being proud doesn’t stand high on my agenda. I am very fortunate that I could meet and work with some of the brightest and best people in global business, and that they accepted that I cared for my personal and professional integrity. I am also very thankful that frog design has been and continues to be such a great creative force for nearly forty years.

TAXI >> There has been a lot of talk about about radical transparency. It worked for Glenn Kelman of Redfin. He said it saved his business. What are your thoughts on doing business in the buff?

Hartmut Esslinger >> We have always been totally open since day one back in 1969, and therefore frog is transparent like a pristine mountain river. I believe that when people don’t get the truth they will create myths – and assume the worst. When all know the reality, great people will take the right steps to improve it.

TAXI >>People are also talking about the age of conversation. Do you think conversational marketing has any impact in the world of design?

Hartmut Esslinger >> I want to go a step further: Marketing as we know it is a dying discipline. Conversation is a good thing but collaboration is better – I believe that customers and companies have to change the way products and solutions are being created, produced, sold/purchased, used and recycled. Co-design will be a first step and we also will have to change the wasteful business model of statistical marketing and industrial mass production.

TAXI >>What is the WORD, which you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years?

Hartmut Esslinger >> Ethics.


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Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Garrick Hamm

TAXI >> Hello, Garrick. You were the brains behind many brand makeovers and brand inventions. Creative paralysis, idle pencils and blank papers – what is your personal cure? Garrick Hamm>>Switch off at the end of the day, or your find, you can’t switch on in the morning. TAXI >> You formed Williams Murray Hamm with Richard William and Richard Murray. What is the secret formula to finding the right business and creative partners? Garrick Hamm>> Don’t do into business with mates. Business first, friendship second. Only work with people you like, you’ll find you do your best work, with people you respect. TAXI >> Your client list runs from big names like Virgin, Nestle and Coca Cola to small entrepreneurial

businesses such as Clipper Tea, Hill Station Ice Cream and Cobra Beer. How do you tackle both established and emerging brands?

Garrick Hamm >> In exactly the same way. We believe that all brands, big or small, have a brand truth, a difference. it’s our job to bring this to light, so the passing consumer can engage with it and hopefully purchase it.

TAXI >> According to your biography on D&AD’s website, you take a very keen interest in grooming the future generation of design practitioners. As the chairman of D&AD’s Education Committee and adviser to Buckingham and Somerset College of Arts, what do you think is missing in education that could change the face of design?

Garrick Hamm>> A return to ideas. Too many students, too many courses, and not enough concentrating on ideas.

TAXI >> Many design practitioners dream of having their own studio like you. Either they get lucky, earn recognition for their work and expand, or get acquired or worse, close down. What is the best advice you could give them?

Garrick Hamm>> You get out of life what you put in.

TAXI >> What is the one myth about creative directors you would most like to shatter?

Garrick Hamm>> The high salaries.

TAXI >> Apart from earning accolades yourself, you have also played judge on many international design awards panels. In your opinion, what makes judges’ hearts beat a little faster? What creates a lasting impression (be it good or bad)?

Garrick Hamm >>An idea, so pure, so simple and done in such an original way, you can’t help but wish you’d done it yourself.

TAXI >>What is the WORD, which you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years?

Garrick Hamm>> IDEAS.




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