Hasta La Ideas

Gizmodo’s got an interview up with Hartmut Esslinger, the founder of frog design and the man behind Sony’s iconic ’70s products and Apple’s “Snow White” design language of the ’80s. And luckily for us, this isn’t just a rubdown piece–they ask the tough questions we want to hear the answers to. An excerpt:

Were there times when companies were afraid to go as far as you wanted them to? Are there any examples of companies that refused to make design improvements—perhaps because of cost—and paid a larger price for that?

Strategic design is not about “going as far as possible” but about “going the best way together”. As said above with the Apple Snow White example, the interactive relationship between client and designer is a vital element for success or failure. So, even as I may push for more advanced solutions, the client may have many reasons not to follow. At the end of a day, each jointly achieved result shall be a healthy compromise, motivated by achieving the best for the user and/or consumer. Naturally, there are some negative examples where I couldn’t convince clients, which I also describe in my book: Polaroid which stuck too long to chemical image creation, Maytag which refused to innovate in a strategic way and Motorola which missed the opportunity to create the iPhone long before Apple did.

Read the rest here.

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