New York, May 12th, 2021

Frog is a leading global design and strategy consultancy.

For more than five decades, the agency has collaborated with passionate leaders and visionary entrepreneurs to launch new businesses, win on customer experience and bring bold ideas to life.

Frog helps its clients define and implement new business models and strategies.

Halle Kho is the agency’s Executive Design Director and the Creative Lead at frog’s New York City Studio.

In an interview with TIA, Kho described her role at the agency and her approach to design.

At the same time, she reflected on some of her recent work and on what it means to work in digital during the Covid-19 pandemic.

To kick things off please can you describe your neighborhood and what makes it home? 

At the beginning of the pandemic, when New York City went into lockdown, my family and I decided to leave Brooklyn and hide out in the Catskills. We have a humble ranch from the 1950’s, lots of space, trees, animals and a pond. We have been up here in the mountain for over a year and it has become our home.

We have filled this place with life, experiments, art and learning. We are learning how to survive in a rural area, learning how to build and grow a garden, raising chickens, and raising our sons. 

One must-do experience in the Catskills: Westwind Orchard. Fabio has the best cider, pizza and outdoor dining around. We discovered Westwind when we first moved here, and it was a great getaway for us during a time of intense social isolation.

One must-do experience in New York: Personal Marathon. Running from the Brooklyn Bridge to Battery Park, up the West Side Highway, past the Intrepid Museum, base of Central Park to East Side, down to the Manhattan Bridge and across and back to Brooklyn.

You’ll have to find all the right streets and entries, and map the route and distance ahead of time, but this is a wonderful way to experience pretty much all of New York City with some of the biggest and best architecture, historical sites, memorable highlights and special people that you might bump into.

How did you first become interested in digital experiences?

In the late 1990’s, I first began using a computer for scanning and digital painting for an animation studio, and I worked for several years as a digital background painter. I was very dedicated to the artform of painting, and I was initially very against moving from the medium of paint to pixels, but I learned how to use the computer as a tool of expression and art, and became quite convinced, addicted, hooked.

Over the years, being able to design and build digital experiences became my favorite way to work. It was an amazing way to create, collaborate, access people and create useful applications.

Could you explain to us briefly what’s your role as Creative Lead of frog’s New York studio?

I used to believe that my role as Executive Design Director and Creative Lead was to monitor and be responsible for the craft of interaction design, visual design and experience design. Quality, training, hiring, mentoring and innovating are no longer enough.

My responsibility as a leader is to ensure diversity, equality and inclusive behavior. I have processed this by creating structure around processes and rituals that can be replicated and duplicated in order to ensure consistent behavioral expectations, and inclusivity for the whole team.

How can leadership create and then cultivate an inclusive workplace?

We can be vocal. We can take the time to educate ourselves and let our colleagues take the time to do the same. We can share our experiences and be open to others’ experiences. We can use our power to change culture, to affect hiring habits and to build equitable practice and training in our craft. We can use our strength and experience to support our teams and be good humans.

Every experience has an emotional component. What is your approach to design positive emotions to keep users happy and engaged?

The basis of our designs revolves around human behavior. Our design decisions and direction are led by the user’s experience in their environment and their most natural user pathways which are meant to lead to the highest level of engagement and joy.

Of all the recent projects your company has produced, which one are you most proud of?

In this last year, I’m honestly proud of everything the studio has been able to accomplish over this last year.

The teams have adapted to working remotely in what was a culture and methodology that was highly dependent on being physically together. The work has been stellar, and our productivity levels and engagement has been through the roof. We have grown closer in many ways, with our colleagues, our clients and our industry.

We have pushed the boundaries of our tools; we have become more globally connected and we have developed longer-lasting stronger relationships with the majority of our clients. Being on zoom has allowed us to connect with each other, and even with our research participants, in a way we never would have before. 

The perfect client brief: Does it exist? 

The perfect client brief is open-ended and lacks assumption, in my opinion. Our work is always more interesting, more creative and more invigorating when we are brought in to solve a nebulous problem, and not to just fix something that’s broken.

We are living through the most important pandemic in recent world history. What’s the most stimulating part of working in digital at the moment?

Human connection. Throughout this pandemic, we are using digital platforms to connect with each other in a desperate way.

As designers, we have become more coherent users, more adept customers, more focused and possibly more connected, empathetic and intuitive.

We socialize through our devices more than ever, and it’s exciting to be able to be a part of this time when we are using digital so primarily to connect on a more human level. 

With shopper behavior changing, what impact do you believe machine learning and big data will have on the world of creative production?

Creative production will have to find more creative ways to create links beyond the machine. Machine learning is so incredibly effective at predicting recommendations and leading to efficient browsing and higher sales. As this tech grows, the question we must ask is how we can be creative within more rigidly defined parameters.

Which artists from around the world are you currently most excited about?

• Nick Cave
• Alice Neel 
• Jeffrey Gibson

What advice do you have for women aiming for leadership positions?

Don’t stop and don’t fight only for yourself. Build diverse and inclusive teams. Be “emotional” or be “angry” and don’t listen to all the judgmental nonsense that gets in your way.

Be everything you want, get everything you want, plan well and accept help. 

Which unusual skill do you pride yourself in having?

I have two unusually perfect kids who inspire me, keep me on my toes, allow me to be empathetic, make me feel creative, motivate me to work harder than ever and be a role model.

Thanks Halle!

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