Hartmut Esslinger

Product/Industrial Designer / United States / De Tao Group/Studio Esslinger

Hartmut Esslinger is the founder of frog design, inc., a leading global innovation firm, and one of the most respected designers and business consultants in the world. Esslinger sparked a design revolution when he founded frog design in his native Germany around the guiding principle “form follows emotion.” His work has defined the modern consumer aesthetic with such revolutionary strategies as Apple’s “Snow White Design Language”— including the Macintosh line—and Sony’s “International Style”—including Personal Stereo and Trinitron TVs. He designed Lufthansa's brand and fleet image, Disney’s retro-futuristic Cruise Ships and Consumer Electronics, Louis Vuitton’s brand aesthetic as well as User Interfaces for Microsoft Windows and SAP. His designs are held in the permanent collections of 15 museums, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Die Neue Sammlung, Munich.

Esslinger is Founding Professor of the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe, Germany (1989), and from 2005 to 2011 he was Professor for Convergent Design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria. Since 2011 he has been DeTao Professor for Strategic Design & Innovation at the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts, China. Parsons The New School for Design, New York awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts, and he has also been named a Honorary Royal Designer for Industry (HonRDI) by the Royal Society of Arts, London.

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Louis Kahn: The Importance of a Drawing

Louis Kahn: The Importance of a Drawing

Edited by Michael Merrill
Publisher: Lars Müller Publishers
Published: October 2021

The first in-depth study of drawings as primary sources of insight into architect Louis Kahn’s architecture and creative imagination. Based on unprecedented archival research, with over 900 illustrations and written contributions by Michael Benedikt, Michael Cadwell, David Leatherbarrow, Louis Kahn, Nathaniel Kahn, Sue Ann Kahn, Michael J. Lewis, Robert McCarter, Michael Merrill, Marshall Meyers, Jane Murphy, Gina Pollara, Harriet Pattison, Colin Rowe, David Van Zanten, Richard Wesley, and William Whitaker.

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Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People

By Debbie Millman
Publisher: Harper Design
Forthcoming: February 22, 2022

Debbie Millman—author, educator, brand consultant, and host of the widely successful and award-winning podcast Design Matters—showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews, bringing together insights and reflections from today’s leading creative minds from across diverse fields.

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Louis Kahn: Architecture as Philosophy by John Lobell

Louis Kahn: Architecture as Philosophy

By John Lobell
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: June 2020

Noted Louis I.Kahn expert John Lobell explores how Kahn’s focus on structure, respect for materials, clarity of program, and reverence for details come together to manifest an overall philosophy.

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Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn by Harriet Pattison

Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn

By Harriet Pattison
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: October 2020

An intimate glimpse into the professional and romantic relationship between Harriet Pattison and the renowned architect Louis Kahn. Harriet Pattison, FASLA, is a distinguished landscape architect. She was Louis Kahn’s romantic partner from 1959 to 1974, and his collaborator on the landscapes of the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, and the F.D.R. Memorial/Four Freedoms Park, New York. She is the mother of their son, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn.

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Reading Graphic Design History: Image, Text, and Context by David Raizman

Reading Graphic Design History: Image, Text, and Context

By David Raizman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Published: December 2020

An innovative approach to graphic design that uses a series of key artifacts from the history of print culture in light of their specific historical contexts. It encourages the reader to look carefully and critically at print advertising, illustration, posters, magazine art direction, and typography, often addressing issues of class, race, and gender.

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David King: Designer, Activist, Visual Historian by Rick Poynor

David King: Designer, Activist, Visual Historian

By Rick Poynor
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: September 2020

A comprehensive overview of the work and legacy of David King (1943–2016), whose fascinating career bridged journalism, graphic design, photography, and collecting. King launched his career at Britain’s Sunday Times Magazine in the 1960s, starting as a designer and later branching out into image-led journalism, blending political activism with his design work.

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