The first studio we visited was Frog Studios which was a studio I had never heard of before however I had heard of Capgemini who they are part of. On my initial research I learned that they worked on applying creativity and strategy to their designs as well as taking research and data to reinvent businesses and their products. On first impression I found their offices very impressive as they were very spacious, bright and seemed like a really nice environment to be able to work in. We were then introduced to Ron and Zoe who gave us a presentation so we could learn a little about Frog’s history, their work and the companies they work with.
In 1969, German industrial designer Hartmut Esslinger founded the company just after he had graduated from design school in Germany. Esslinger’s interests specifically lay within human centred design, something which today plays a big role in technology today and built his company on the motto “form follows emotion” which is an adaption of the well known saying “form follows function” but with a more human centred feel. This is something that even today, Frog still follows and is at the foundations of their work.
What I also found really interesting is the origin of the name “Frog”. As I had learned from our semester two module of exploring identities, the majority of brand names have a reasoning behind them and this is no exception when it comes to Frog Design. The name Frog is inspired by Hartmut coming from Beuren the black forest region of Germany where there is typically many frogs. As well as that Harmut’s pet frog Friedolin also was a massive point of inspiration for the company too with a portrait of him being hung in every Frog office. When we visited we couldn't miss our chance to get a photo with Friedolin’s portrait.
After a little bit of history, we got to learn about the different clients they worked with both past and present including Apple, David Lloyd and Lego. Their work with Lego is something that really interested me as I personally really enjoy the sets which are aimed to adults. They talked about the process and how they must cater their work to not only children but also to adults as Lego is a platform which is enjoyed by all but also looking at how to the initial feeling of the world of Lego on a digital platform and how you can make that feeling last longer. One of the things they had worked with Lego on is the sets that can be build into several different models and how one set of Lego can last double or even triple the amount of time.
Zoe talked about how she was able to interview children for their projects with Lego and collecting research on children's phycological connects with Lego which I thought was interesting however they also touched on how sometimes instead of doing research for projects they create assumptions and experiment them using mock ups and prototypes as it helps to generate different ideas quicker. Although this is very much different from what we have been taught to do, I think it is a very different more human approach which works really well for them.
Leading on from Zoe’s project with Lego she spoke about inclusive design and designing for different people, personalities and to help broaden designers minds for the large range of people their products will be used by. Zoe created a range of design prompt cards called Cards for Humanity with each card presenting a different person with different needs and personalities. I really liked this idea as it allows us to widen our minds when it comes to including all sorts of people in our designs whether it is for accessibility or the look and feel of our designs.
