Page 40 - VE Magazine - Issue 26

homeware
and signature Rams’ designs look effortless. But their exquisite simplicity was born of rigorous testing, ex- periments with new materials and an obsessive atten- tion to detail to ensure that each piece was flawlessly coherent.
In 1981, Rams became professor of industrial de- sign at an Art College in Hamburg. Juggling his de- sign obligations at Braun and his teaching duties, he offered terms of up to five months for students to work with him in the Braun’s product design department.
He remained design director of Braun until 1995, when he was succeeded by Peter Schneider. He went on to be Executive Director of corporate identity af- fairs at the company before retiring emeritus in 1997, aged 75.ve
With thanks to Dr Peter Kapos for images and background information (www.dasprogramm.org). Article compiled with the help of the Design Museum’s 2009 show ‘Less and More – The design ethos of Dieter Rams’ (www.designmuseum.org)
Above: This hi-tec looking Braun Hobby Special (acrylic) camera was designed as early as 1958! Left: The Braun sixtant 4004 shaver was designed by Rams, Oberheim and Ullman in 1979. Shavers remain Braun’s biggest seller
Braun phase 1 (acrylic) clock designed by Dieter Rams and Dietrich Lubs in 1971
Rams loved to design lighters - the TFG 2 Permanent made in 1968 has a thermoplastic body and laquered steel top. Below: These hairdryers from the 1970s are an interesting example of his severe-pop style
BRAUN’S TALENTED
DESIGN TEAM
As director of Braun’s fine team of young industrial designers, one of Rams’ great achievements
was acting as a unifying genius, guiding the work of these independent talents into a cohesive whole: Otl Aicher;
Hans Gugleot; Wilhelm Wagenfeld; Gerd Alfred Müller; Reinhold Weiss; Dietrich Lubs; Jurgen Greubel; Richard Fischer; Robert Oberheim; to name just a few.
40 / February-March 2016 / ve
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