EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW DESIGN STRATEGIES – SHAPING THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS GERmAN DESIGN LEGEND HARTmUT ESSLINGER ON RELAUNCHING THE TELEFUNkEN BRAND Throughout a long and successful career, Hartmut Esslinger has had a profound effect on leading brands like Sony, Apple and HP. He founded frog design, Inc. in 1969 when he was just 25-years-old and quickly turned the company into one of the world’s leading strategic design firms. He also pioneered the use of design as a means of humanising technology. His contribution to Apple’s Snow White design resulted in the ground-breaking Apple II computer series which earned Time magazine’s Design of the Year award in 1984. His successes over the years are too numerous to mention, but suffice to say, he was instrumental in the design of Sony’s Trinitron television, Lufthansa’s brand and fleet image, Disney’s cruise lines and Louis Vuitton’s brand aesthetic. In 2001, frog took part in the development of a more powerful and flexible Microsoft Media Player system. They also updated the brand’s image with a redesigned Windows logo. We had the chance to meet with Professor Essinger and to speak about his involvement in the re-branding of the Telefunken brand, as well as asking about his current impressions of the CE market … …Who is really innovating today in electronics? What excites you the most? The most advanced thing today is convergence. Converging things rather than inventing them. The iPhone is an example. Apple focuses on the software and experience side, and for the hardware they try to get the best people together. Then it’s a matter of what people are doing with it. It’s a completely different paradigm. Is it more important to think what people might need than to ask what they think they need? Yes. Henry Ford once said, “If I had asked people, they would have told me to create faster horses.” However, you should listen to complaints. It’s a pragmatic optimism that drives this industry. You cannot find out by testing to find out what people like… that’s a myth. People have many different talents, and product innovation and business strategies are very challenging jobs. Not many people can do those things. What have you seen that you like at IFA? I think Samsung is edgy, healthy and aggressive. I like wireless technology, which is getting more fun, especially for young people. And I think the big battle today is how to converge digital technology such as computers with traditional entertainment like TV. The TV industry needs to understand the next generation, which will embrace cloud computing as “cloud entertainment”. We are only at the beginning, but progress will be faster than we think. I believe there are two motivations for the future of the TV industry. People want to watch images, that’s a huge sensual impact, but now they want it to be interactive. TV will become truly interactive in the future. What exactly are you doing to revive the Telefunken brand? I can’t really tell you. What I can say is that we are developing a prototype, which is a user interface for the iPhone, allowing you to use the iPhone as a remote control for your TV and for home automation. First it will work as a universal remote, which will work with a little box that will function with any product. In general, we are working with partners on the Telefunken brand, we want to achieve a semantic symbolism. We want to underline Germany’s global relevance, showing technology, but in a cultivated way, not making it brutal. We’re working with designers in China where they have a strong and cohesive craft culture. The whole industry is migrating there. Even the iPhone is made in Shenzen. Telefunken has a wish to be a different kind of company, to make only what is needed, do it really well, and be liked for it. The good news is that the Telefunken brand is still alive after having been shuffled all over the place like in a Monopoly game. Tell us about the come back of Telefunken… This year, in it’s first year, the company made about 400-million Euros in revenues, but mainly in countries like Italy and Russia. In the next couple of years, you’ll be seeing some much more innovative and exciting designs happening. Hall 8.2 / Stand 102 IFA International • Tuesday, 8 th September 2009 www.ifa-international.org 11
