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here are certain names that have become synonymous with greatness in a particular field whose body of work will ensure that their legacy will never fade even when their tangible vessel has left this world. In the arts, paintings from Picasso, Monet, van Gogh and

Klimt hang from the walls of the most prestigious and creative sanctuaries in the world. Their work is being appreciated solely through the power of sight as means of preservation. But for the work of Dieter Rams – perhaps one of the most influential figures in industrial design ever – his work runs the gamut of sensory appreciation and tells the story of functional usage.

To know Dieter Rams is to know his “ten principles for good design.” Calling the world around him in the 1980s “an impe-netrable confusion of forms, colors and noises,” he aimed to create certain tenets of what resonated with him after internal reflection as to the state of his own contributions to the muddled world. Thus, good design “is innovative, makes a product useful, is aesthetic, makes a product understandable, is unobtrusive, is honest, is long-lasting, is thorough down to the last detail, is environmentally friendly, and is as little design as possible.”Rams cemented the notion that innovative thinkers don’t break rules, they merely rewrite them.

In 1955, renowned brand for small electrical appliances, Braun, hired a then 23-year-old Rams as an interior designer before he ultimately became the nucleus of Braun’s own design department. In their own words, Rams “gave Braun a corporate identity long before the term was even coined.” Credited with the creation of such game changers as the SK-4 record player, D-series of 35 mm film slide projectors, and ET66 calculator – the latter being utilized by Apple for the original iPhone calculator app – each Braun creation invokes the notion of unbridled possibilities.

For his entire career Rams worked almost exclusively for Braun – where he retired in 1997 and Vitsœ – the brainchild of Niels Vitsœ and Otto Zapf whose goal was to realize the furni-ture designs of Rams. Working steadfastly with the blessings of Braun who saw the duality of his character and ambitions as only a strength for his technical achievements, Rams would eventually cook up such classics as the 606 Universal Shelving System and 620 Chair Program which “adapts to life’s inevi-table changes.” His brilliance lay in the ability to offer up the brushstrokes and create a place where innovation could find a resting place.

With technology pushing the boundaries on what is possible, it’s wise to remember something Dieter Rams once said. “Not the spectacular things are the important things. The unspecta-cular things are the important things, especially in the future.”

Dieter Rams

D I E T E R R A M S

TQuiet is better than loud.

W O R D S A L E C B A N K SI L L U S T R A T I O N S Z A C H

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Braun ET 66

Dieter Rams + Dietrich Lubs 1987

Braun Mach 2

Dieter Rams + Florian Seiffert 1971

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Braun SK 55 phonosuper

Dieter Rams + Hans Gugelot 1963

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Braun L46 wall-mountable

flat speakers

Dieter Rams 1963

Braun ABR 21

Dieter Rams + Dietrich Lubs 1978

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Braun F30 B flash unit

Dieter Rams 1959

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C A R H A R T T W I P

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N I K E + R I C C A R D O T I S C I

4192349

508005

07

D €

8, A

€8,

CH

F 11

, LU

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8, B

€8.

50, B

€8.

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L €

9.50

I €9,

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9, S

KR

80,

DK

R 8

0, N

KR

80,

UK

£8

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