Interestingly, Kindle 2.0's design is being lead by a designer hired from the powerhouse shop, Frog Design.

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In the early 1980s, with Frog Design in West Germany, he worked on projects including Sony Walkmans and Apple computers.

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Greenstart hired David Merkoski, who was the executive creative director at Frog Design, earlier this year to be its chief creative officer and to help its companies improve their product and service designs.

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Despite what was said to be enthusiasm for it at the company, the set-top box would be shelved just weeks before launch and instead spun out to Roku, which released a strikingly similar-looking device itself -- Frog Design is said to have worked with Netflix on the original design.

ENGADGET

That's because the iPhone's severe design isn't about aesthetics: it's a solution to the very modern problem of how to combine computing, communications and mobility in a single device, says Mark Rolston, chief creative officer at Frog Design, which has worked on projects from Logitech devices to online services for Blockbuster (nyse: BBI - news - people ).

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Jane Henson helped design many puppets for the hit TV show, whose characters include Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy, and also worked as a puppeteer.

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