What can as we speak's designers study from Braun?
Dieter Rams and his work at Braun enjoy an almost universal status in the design community and beyond. The electrical appliance company from the early 1920s is often viewed as the epitome of good design, with vintage products that are in high demand and sell for large sums. According to Ben Wilson, industrial designer and communications director for the company, many often ignore a critical part of the Braun design philosophy – they focus so much on the appearance of the products that they miss what made them so successful in the first place.
"It's about more than just the products, it's about the way the products are made – the thinking with which they were made and the way in which they are to be experienced in the real world," he explains to CR. “The Germans have a good word for it – 'attitude'. There is no English translation for it. It's a word I've been talking about in the English-speaking designer for the past 10 years because it embodies what makes Braun design so unique. It's a way of doing things. It's an approach. It's a series of steps that lead to a specific type of design. "
Braun's stance, as Wilson describes it, is based on three principles: useful, simple, and built to last. Products should address consumer needs, make them as accessible and straightforward as possible, and prioritize longevity. As Wilson says, "It's a pretty simple recipe for making good design."
What they didn't copy was the attitude. They didn't copy the way of doing things, they copied the aesthetics
When Braun began to embrace this philosophy in the early 1950s, its big competitors raised eyebrows at the "very clean, modernist objects that look like something out of a spaceship" that resulted. But it wasn't long before they saw that Braun was after something. "Everyone began to realize that something was going on – a bigger picture that led to better objects and different objects that can be incorporated into modern architecture and very future-oriented design spaces," explains Wilson.