f/p design was founded in 2000 by prof. fritz frenkler. for 24 years we have been developing new products and services that make our life more efficient and comfortable.
an important role in our understanding of design belongs to the formula invented by prof. frenkler as a chair of industrial design in technical university of munich (tum). it is based on the idea that design is a complicated system, an “organism”, which, in addition to the usual “form and function”, also includes extensive knowledge of technology, ergonomics, sociology, ecology, psychology, philosophy, finance and, of course, the brand identity.
“there is nothing man-made that cannot be associated with design. our world is designed. many people are not aware of this – for them, design only means “making things pretty”. even some designers still think they have to create something “pretty”, that is what the understanding of design suffers from.”
frenkler, f., 2020. der bericht. industrial design an der technischen universitaet muenchen.
for more information, you can download the book here.
prof. frenkler with our management team
fritz frenkler
having graduated with a dipl. des. in industrial design from the academy of fine arts braunschweig (hbk), fritz frenkler worked for frogdesign germany and usa. in 1986, he set up and lead frogdesign asia in tokyo. there, among others, he was part of the team responsible for the design of the next computer for steve jobs. from 1992 to 1997 he held the position of ceo of wiege wilkhahn entwicklungsgesellschaft, before becoming head of design at deutsche bahn ag and ceo of deutsche bahn medien gmbh.
in 2000 fritz frenkler co-founded f/p design with studios in berlin, munich, and kyoto. he was appointed honorary professor at the university of art and design braunschweig in 2005 and full professor of the chair of industrial design as well as head of the industrial design master course at the technical university of munich (tum) in 2006.
in addition to his professorship, fritz frenkler bears responsibility on the tum board of management as the president’s representative for brand policy and corporate design, start-up ambassador for the faculty of architecture for tum entrepreneurship, head of the technical centre of the faculty of architecture (until 2019), member of the board of the design factory (since 2019) and programme principal investigator (tum) for design for autonomous mobility at tumcreate in singapore. in october 2020, he was awarded the title of tum emeritus of excellence in the senior excellence faculty.
nowadays, in addition to his tasks at f/p design, fritz frenkler holds several positions in organisations and juries. in 2022, he was appointed as a member of the board of trustees of the dieter and ingeborg rams foundation. from 2021 till 2024, he was a senator and a director of the architecture section at the academy of arts, berlin. he has been chairperson of the if product design award jury and a board member of the if industrie forum design e.v. since 1995 and a board member of the new if design foundation since 2018. he is also a regional advisor of wdo (world design organisation, formerly icsid), montreal.
andreas huber
andreas huber studied industrial design at darmstadt university of applied sciences (hda) and completed a master of science at the technical university of munich (tum).
he has been working as general manager at f/p design since 2017 and was appointed vice president in 2019.
in addition, andreas huber is lecturing for private enterprises and had lectured at the technical university of munich from 2015 till 2019 as a certified lecturer (hochschullehre bayern certificate). he was a jury member at the did award 2019, dongguan, china. he previously worked for the german aerospace center (dlr) and has collected experience working in advertising and design agencies. andreas huber is widely connected to the creative industry, researchers as well as to german high-tech start-ups.
hiroshi kaneko
after graduating from osaka university with a degree in mechanical engineering, hiroshi kaneko studied industrial design at chiba university. he then worked for okamura corporation as a product designer from 2001 to 2005.
in 2006 hiroshi kaneko moved to germany and started working for f/p design gmbh in frankfurt am main and later in munich. in 2012 he set up a representative office of f/p design gmbh in kyoto and has been the managing director of f/p design co., ltd. in japan since 2018.
our studios in germany and japan
the company, originally founded in frankfurt am main in 2000, now has its head office in munich. munich, the capital of bavaria, as well as the headquarters of bmw, man and siemens, is a center of science and technology with its two elite universities and unique start-up environment. in addition, the third largest city in germany is also the stronghold of bavarian tradition, with beer gardens and castles. likewise, our studio combines german tradition and design quality with the latest findings in the fields of science and technology.
studio japan is situated in kyoto, the centre of japanese culture and buddhism. the city was the capital of japan and the emperor’s residence for more than 1000 years. many traditional craft businesses often have a hundred-year history. numerous shrines, temples and gardens survived until this day including the building of our studio. it is located in a traditional wooden house where kimonos were once made and sold.
studio berlin reflects the vibrant, contemporary scene of the capital lifestyle. berlin is a place of multicultural neighbourhoods, museums, galleries and hundreds of artist studios. this city represents the spirit of the new generation and so does our residence.
