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Dieter Rams started out his life in Germany in the 1930s and did first begin as an apprentice carpenter, he then worked his way up as an architect and interior designer before working for Braun. It wasn’t until the 1950s and working for Braun did his interest move away from architecture and interior design and move towards the design of products.

Dieter Rams is probably most famous for his work with Braun in the 1950s and 60s, many of which can be found in the Museum of Modern Art as they are such iconic pieces of product design. His work for Braun is highly regarded as being a huge influence over Jonathan Ive who’s work on the iMac and iPod began Apple’s huge rise to fame and fortune in the late 20th century and to the present day.

Dieter Rams has a great passion for simplicity and honesty in design, people looking at Rams should also recognize his work on the “ten principles of design.”

1. Good design is innovative.

2. Good design makes a product useful.

3. Good design is aesthetic.

4. Good design helps us understand a product.

5. Good design is unobtrusive.

6. Good design is honest.

7. Good design is durable.

8. Good design is consequent to the last detail.

9. Good design is concerned with the environment.

10. Good design is as little design as possible.

The first picture is the Braun T3 pocket radio, this has the same styling characteristics as the original iPod. Its simplistic design and minimal functions showcase his design principles and this is one of my favourite Dieter Rams product. The second picture shown above is the Braun T1000 Radio heavily influential on the Powermac G5. The third picture being the Braun LE1 speaker which has the complete look and feel of the Apple iMac. Dieter Rams work ended up providing the basis for Johnathan Ive who has recycled them into new and improved design products of high quality.

Other Products Dieter Rams Designed for Braun:

Article written by Jared Thompson

Head writer of Design Something Blog, currently studying Product design at the University of Central Lancashire in his final year. He has interest in minimal, clean and simplistic design styles.

Follow Jared (@Jthompsondesign) on twitter!

Jonathan is a London born designer, who studied at Newcastle Polytechnic. Soon after the completion of his studies in 1985 he became a partner in the London based design consultancy Tangerine. But only three years later he made the massive leap of moving to San Francisco in America to join Apple’s design team. By 1998 Johnathan Ive was then appointed vice-president of industrial design at Apple, where he launches the original iMac, which sells 2 million units in its first year. He has since designed great works such as the G4 cube, G4 Powerbook, iBook and portable iPod. 2003 brought more success with a design museum “designer of the year” prize. With products continually being brought out iMac, Powerbook and iPod mini with the slim iMac coming in 2004. By 2005 Johnathan had risen to Senior Vice President at Apple, reporting directly to the CEO Steve Jobs himself.

Apple’s design team is regarded the world over as one of the best and Johnathan Ive himself has been recognized with several awards, with products being permanent collections in museums such as MOMA in New York and the Pompidou in Paris.

The iMac (1998)

The iMac is such a change of style for desktop computers and provided quite literally a burst of colour onto the scene of bland grey/white computers which you would have seen across the market. Of course using colour in the materials you are manufacturing for the computer, but it was the care and detail the designers and Jonathan Ive took in using these materials. In making them perfect and the iMac just catches your attention straight away. No only did the iMac have a great burst of colour it also is transparent giving the user an insight into inside the computer at the various components, care and attention was put into the internal components which were previous overlooked.

The iPod (2001)

The iPod came with the emergence of mp3 players and the mp3 file format taking over the use of bulky tape and CD players. The Sony Walkman was such an iconic piece of electronics that some would argue the iPod lends itself to some of the same stylings which made the Sony Walkman so successful. The iPod also later on upgraded itself with the click wheel and this was introduced with it being heavily influenced from users liking the feel and click of a record player volume control knob.

The iPod was completely different and burst onto the market as a small pocket sized electronic device which was able to store your whole CD collection! The challenge was the interface in making the device simple and intuitive. The product itself is sealed off, with no screws and the user has no access to the electronic components stored inside. The twin shot shell is complimented with the polished stainless steel shell, which looks so stylish and expensive. Even the ear buds have shifted the market of headphones to introduce colour, they were white matching the iPod’s design and sat comfortably in the ear.

The inspiration of a lot of Jonathan Ive’s work is often attributed to the work of Dieter Rams, German industrial designer of the Bauhaus movement. Dieter Rams was one of the most influential designers of the 20th century transforming the success of Braun with some simply iconic products. The iPod itself has a lot of the styling traits of his record player “Snow White’s coffin.”

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Article written by Jared Thompson

Follow Jared (@Jthompsondesign) on twitter!

Resources:

• Design Museum article