frog50 San Francisco: The Future Started Here

Silicon Valley was frog’s first home in the US, and the place we still know the future is created. To celebrate San Francisco Design Week, we hosted a slew of events and transformed our studio into an immersive exhibition that spans our historic 50-year legacy, while leaning towards the future to see what the next 50 years may hold. The interactive installations included an AR wall activated by our frog50 app; an interactive window powered by computer vision and based on our work with SFMOMA’s 2018 Magritte exhibition; and a product and photography gallery showing off iconic pieces from our 50-year history, including seminal works from our frogVentures™ portfolio.

Our studio party featured a panel led by Charles Yust, Principal Design Technologist at frog, and Chad Coerver, Chief Content Officer at SFMOMA, on how art museums can function as spaces for digital play, sharing findings from the Interpretive Gallery created by frog and SFMOMA in 2018 for “Magritte: The Fifth Season.”

In the talk, Chad set up SFMOMA’s initial question: “How do we build that emotional bond that gest someone ready to learn about art?” He spoke to the research they conducted around the kinds of viewership they had, and subsequently, how they could expand that viewership by thinking of new ways to engage people within the exhibition. This is where frog came into play, to help build upon Magritte’s provocations and introduce a sense of play and discovery via technology. As Charles stated, “we wanted to create playful mysteries that were solvable by viewers.”

The talk, which was originally showcased at SXSW this year, was also updated to include Kaz Saegusa and Fran Wang, who spoke to the technical and physical aspects of the installation respectively, which were both crucial to creating the perfect experience for viewers. “We didn’t want to hide the technology,” says Fran, “we wanted to integrate it in a way that would elevate the experience.”

A big thanks to all who came out to celebrate frog’s 50th anniversary for San Francisco Design Week!