He was born in 1944, in Altensteig, Germany. He studied electrical engineering at the University of Stuttgart before studying industrial design at the Fachhochschule Gmünd.
In 1969, he founded his own industrial design studio, called Esslinger Design, in the city of Altensteig. His first client was the electric company Wega Radio.
Later, the Sony company bought Wega, which introduced Esslinger to the consumer electronics market, which was booming in Japan in those years (1975).
This event gave him international fame and made him stand out since his designs had a particular modern aesthetic.
In its early days, his work seemed to be influenced by the functionalist approach to design advocated by Max Hill and Hans Gugelot at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm. However, he was also driven by the rejection of the “imperious modern sentiments of 1960s Germany” and was looking for one “.vision of what design could still be as opposed to what it has been established to be ¨.
In 1982 Esslinger renamed his studio Frogdesign (frog = Federal Republic of Germany) and opened an office in Campbell, California, to meet the design needs of Silicon Valley’s burgeoning computer industry.
In 1984 he designed the off-white Apple Macintosh for Apple Computer and redefined the aesthetic parameters of the personal computer.
In 1986, Esslinger opened an office in Tokyo, and in the 1990s it founded branches in major technology centers, such as “Silicon Prairie” in Austin, Texas, “Silicon Alley” in New York, “Media Gulch” in San Francisco and ¨Silicon River¨, in Dusseldorf.
Frogdesign has designed cameras, synthesizers, binoculars, communication equipment and office seats for companies such as RCAS, Kodak, Polaroid, Motorota, Seiko, Sony, Olympus, ATT, AEG, König und Neurath, Erco, Villeroy & Boch, Rosenthal and Yamaha .
Esslinger aims to humanize technology with sculptural shapes or visual references to create user-friendly products.
This designer with an international perspective recognizes the ¨Advantages of assembling an Asian task force, European discipline, German precision, American optimism and Californian madness ¨to form a unique, creative and multicultural company.
Frog maintains a revolutionary design thanks to its unique emotional and cultural style.
Frog has defined modern consumer aesthetics, and has also been a part of some of the biggest success stories, including designing global product strategies for Sony, Louis Vuitton, NEC, Disney Consumer Electronics, Apple Computer, Microsoft and SAP.