Frog Design was founded by Hartmut Esslinger in Germany’s Black Forest region back in 1969. The firm gained worldwide fame in the 1980s when Steve Jobs hired them to create Apple’s Snow White design language, which defined the look of personal computers for nearly a decade.
Capgemini acquired Frog in 2021, giving the studio access to one of the world’s largest consulting and technology services firms. Frog now operates as an independent brand within Capgemini’s portfolio, maintaining its creative culture while gaining enterprise-scale delivery capabilities.
The consultancy runs studios in Munich, Milan, New York, Austin, Seattle, Shanghai, and several other cities. Their work spans product design, digital experience design, and innovation strategy for clients like GE, Siemens, Disney, and UNICEF.
Frog’s approach blends industrial design heritage with modern digital expertise. Teams include interaction designers, visual designers, strategists, and technologists who collaborate from the earliest stages of a project. They’re particularly known for helping large organizations build internal innovation capabilities rather than just delivering one-off projects.
The firm has earned over 300 design awards, and Businessweek named Esslinger one of the most influential industrial designers of the 20th century. Frog’s alumni have gone on to lead design at companies like Google, Microsoft, and Tesla.
