A story of business transformation and a guide to creative strategies for designing a better business Written by Hartmut Esslinger, the founder of one of the world's foremost innovation firms, frog design, inc., A Fine Line reveals the secrets to better business through better design. Linking the amazing story of Esslinger's transformation from industrial design wunderkind to a global innovation powerhouse to the challenges facing businesses in the rise of the creative economy today, A Fine Line illustrates how successful business leaders partner with designers in building a better and more profitable future. Instead of offering companies a temporary innovation booster, frog works to build creative design into the framework of any organization's competitive strategy.
The stories, ideas, and innovative solutions in this book clearly illustrate the economic power of creativity and design's role in shaping a sustainable competitive advantage for businesses in the rapidly evolving creative economy. Hartmut Esslinger (San Francisco, CA and New York, NY) is the founder of frog design, inc, a global innovation firm, and one of the most respected designers and business consultants in the world. Esslinger founded frog design in his native Germany and sparked a design revolution.
His work has defined the modern consumer aesthetic with such revolutionary products as the Apple Macintosh computer, Sony's original Trinitron television, and Lufthansa's brand and fleet image. He is also Founding Professor of the Hochschule fur Gestaltung in Karlsruhe, Germany and Professor for Convergent Design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria.
"A breath of turbo-charged fresh air that doesn't regurgitate the ego-maniac CEO's selective memory or an outside expert's misinterpretations. Hartmut explains innovation through the lens of design, and it's about time we gained his valuable perspective." —Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist, Apple and co-founder of Alltop.com
"At Flextronics, we fell in love with Hartmut and frog, and their passion for bringing crazy great designs and design processes into the forefront of great product companies. We used their expertise to help our customers, many of the greatest product companies in the world, including Apple, HP, Cisco, Microsoft and others. It is a credit to Hartmut that in the midst of a shocking global recession, frog still sets quarterly revenue records. Theirs is a unique and fascinating story." —Michael Marks, partner, Riverwood Capital LLC and former CEO, Flextronics
"Hartmut's new approach to design is felt in every room in every house in every country and in every business around the world. He proved that thoughtful design is not only good for people but is good for business—and that both are interlinked. I have been fortunate to have observed first hand his impact at Sony, Apple, and HP?and have learned so much from him. He is an unsung hero of our times! A Fine Line is a must-read for designers and business people alike." —Satjiv Chahil, senior vice president, Hewlett-Packard
"A fascinating, breathtaking, and exemplary insight into a success story that never had so much topicality, and so much informative potential as just now. Esslinger offers an honest and encouraging portrait of the incredible power of the business and design alliance. A Fine Line is a handbook of design expertise and the art of business at its best, showing a variety of radical solutions and fresh new ideas." —Professor Dr Peter Zec, president, ICSID and founder, red dot awards