Gizmodo
The year 2008 marks the 10th Anniversary of the iMac, the computer that changed everything at Apple, hailing a new design era spearheaded by design genius Jonathan Ive. What most people don't know is that there's another man whose products are at the heart of Ive's design philosophy, an influence that permeates every single product at Apple, from hardware to user-interface design. That man is Dieter Rams, and his old designs for Braun during the '50s and '60s hold all the clues not only for past and present Apple products, but their future as well:
When you look at the Braun products by Dieter Rams—many of them at New York's MoMA—and compare them to Ive's work at Apple, you can clearly see the similarities in their philosophies way beyond the sparse use of color, the selection of materials and how the products are shaped around the function with no artificial design, keeping the design "honest."
This passion for "simplicity" and "honest design" that is always declared by Ive whenever he's interviewed or appears in a promo video, is at the core of Dieter Rams' 10 principles for good design:
• Good design is innovative.
• Good design makes a product useful.
• Good design is aesthetic.
• Good design helps us to understand a product.
• Good design is unobtrusive.
• Good design is honest.
• Good design is durable.
• Good design is consequent to the last detail.
• Good design is concerned with the environment.
• Good design is as little design as possible.
Ive's inspiration on Rams' design principles goes beyond the philosophy and gets straight into a direct homage to real products created decades ago. Amazing pieces of industrial design that still today remain fresh, true classics that have survived the test of time.
The similarities between products from Braun and Apple are sometimes uncanny, others more subtle, but there's always a common root that provides the new Apple objects not only with a beautiful simplicity but also with a close familiarity.
Braun Atelier TV and latest iMac 24
Braun T1000 radio and PowerMac G5/Mac Pro
Detail of the radio perforated aluminum surface
Braun T3 pocket radio and Apple iPod
Braun L60 sound system and Apple iPod Hi-Fi
Braun LE1 speaker and Apple iMac
Some people will probably call these examples a "rip-off" but, in a world where industrial design and art is constantly being recycled into new work, I just see Apple's products as a great evolution to classic concepts. Now, as I look at Rams' work I can't help but to wonder: which of these old Braun designs will Apple revive next? Is there a MacBook Air—the rumored ultra-slim wire-free portable that seems to be the favorite bet for tomorrow's keynote—in there?
Hopefully, we'll discover at least some answers tomorrow. See you at Macworld! [Design Museum, Dieter Rams and O Globo Online]
Comments
So... pocket calculators and record players for Macworld?
Wow this is lame.
The MacBook Air is definitely an ultra-thin clock radio. With an iPod dock.
even the braun calculator and the one on the iphone :) that is neat.
Nice job gizmodo!
Awesome feature! Really shows how design comes around again.
Can't wait until rotary dials come back to phones...then my nightmares will be complete. CAN'T...DIAL...NUMBER!!! Anyone else in their 30s have nightmares of not being able to dial out since they were a kid? I think the only thing that would make rotary phones worse is if the holes were razor-sharp and the handset dispensed lemon juice.
There's some seriously beautiful stuff there. The lighters make me want to smoke again, especially while listening to music on that wall mounted reel to reel... Then I'd head out with me droogs for a bit of the old ultra-violence.
Really, really nice head-piece, Jesus. Really well-done. Most people don't realize that under the covers of our consumer culture there is a history of design and engineering that we all (hopefully) benefit from. Good companies leverage that history- and bad ones produce the Zune...
...so there is no such thing as an Apple rip-off? Just Braun rip-offs? Apple has been ripping of Braun... I feel like a college kid who just figured out that "Mrs. Robinson" by the Lemonheads was a remake. Oh well, que sera, sera.
So basically this article is saying that Apple really doesn't have any original ideas of their own despite what everyone thinks and just copies stuff from the 1960's that their target audience wouldn't recognize and pass it off as their own unique creation?
When Apple does it, it's a "great evolution to classic concepts." But when a company makes a cell phone that is rectangular and has buttons it's a rip-off. Once again iSheep have consumed the iKool-Aid.
Superb Article!
Gizmodo has once again proven that there is nothing new under the sun. Great article!
Man, that camera with THAT microphone is SO PORN!
"Good artists copy, great artists steal"
@mrnako: Well, when retards find great articles lame, Giz knows it's doing something right. Why don't you plug back into Halo 3 and stop pretending you're interested in "reading" "words" about "ideas".
This is a terrific article. Those Rams designs are phenomenal! That watch is classic, and I really want one.
Wow! So cool to see that everything old IS new.....when i was a kid, we had a neighbor who was an artist---he had one of those cylindrical fans that moved a ton of air silently. Amazing design never goes out of style.
GREAT ARTICLE: fascinating! When I was a kid I love Led Zeppelin because of their "originality." Then I found out years later that Jimmy Page was notorious for "Taking inspiration" from many sources and blatantly ripping off some old black artists who had no rights to their own material at the time. There's even a compilation CD called "Led Astray" featuring many of those tunes. But in the long run, like with APPLE, it's who refines the idea and gets it to market that gets rewarded. Sorry Dieter, life's not fair. Go APPLE!
If you think this is nifty, wait till you see what Andrew Ryan has come up with...
Well... If you're going to steal, steal from the best.
These are exceptional examples of good design, both in their genesis and modern use.
/not a mac user
//design fanatic
@Pope John Peeps II: Agreed. It might not be <200 words, but its a thinky-worthy, somewhat-servicey piece.
I suddenly feel the urge to listen to Kraftwerk now.
Acually Dieter is a follower of the early 20th century Bauhaus School of Design - which created a modern 'less is more' and 'form follows function' in graphics (Helvetica type), products (Braun), and architecture (the glass and steel skyscrapers).
So Apple is not ripping of Dieter, they both were and are following the same design philosophy.
Wow, my first read over here after 4+ years of Engadget, great article.
I'm somewhat surprised that it's Braun, the products pictured have more of a B&O look to them. I guess my only experience with Braun is standard looking coffee makers.
Well done, the comparisons are great!
Dieter Rams' work for Braun has pretty much always been hailed as classic even when it was new. ICON magazine did a retrospective of his work a few years ago and the influence he had on Ive's work was mentioned there too.
thats kinda creepy.
LAME.
Wow! I totally had that squirrel-cage fan when I was younger (in the 80s). Really powerful for its size and whisper quiet. I had no idea it was a celebrated design.
I was shaving with my iPod just this morning.
....
In the spirit of the article, recognizing those that have already said it clearly and succinctly.
Had this been any other company the article would have been very different. Replace "Apple" with "Microsoft" for example and you wouldn't call it "a great evolution to classic concepts" but rather "yet more proof that Microsoft is incapable of innovation".
Apple's design really isn't that innovative, however what it is is very un-American (I mean that in the sense of being not typical of an American company, rather than unpatriot!). Their look is very much grounded in European minimalism that dates back to Bauhaus in the 1920s.
While the US has had its (important) proponents of minimalism, the movement didn't have the same wide-spread impact that it did in Europe. As a result, Apple's design seems a lot more revolutionary to most Americans than it does to Europeans.
I'm not trying to take away from Apple's design work - I'm a fan of Jonathan Ive's work, but it has to be understood in the the context of all the great design that came before it.
p.s. What are all the "Lame" comments supposed to mean? That the central thesis of this article is false, or that Apple's design is lame? Or what? It's not for me to tell people how to post, but please write so that other people (who are not living in your head) can understand what your point is!
"...The similarities between products from Braun and Apple are sometimes uncanny, others more subtle, but there's always a common root which provides the new Apple objects not only with a beautiful simplicity but also with a close familiarity..."
Jesus, seriously, you sound near-orgasmic during this entire article.
"with no artificial design"
And what the heck are does that mean?
Nice post, Jesus. Thanks for the overview. I was already familiar with Ram's work and it's influence on Ives but seeing the examples next to each other was definitely illuminating.
@DJ_Cob and Snoogans: Nope that's not it at all. That's like saying that Braun ripped off the watch face because it's round and has numbers and hands to point out the time or that every example of the numeric keypad we use today on phones , computers, and calculators are rip-offs of Rams keypad design for the Braun calculator. Both are technically true but meaningless.
A big part of design process is knowing what to leave in and what to leave out and what works and what doesn't work are is unlikely to work. Knowing what has worked in the past is a huge piece of the puzzle and suggesting that a design is stolen simply because it acknowledges prior work instead of emerging from some vaporous part of the artists imagination that is completely untouched by memory is moronic.
The iPod scroll wheel is a perfect example of something that was invented for one technology then retrofitted to fit another. It actually made more sense on the iPod 30 years later than it did on the radio.
That's not stealing. It's not even homage. It's just good design at work.
That Ives understands so well how that process works is a big reason why Apple is Apple and everyone else is trying to catch up.
The kool-aid works whether you drink it or not.
@packetsniffer: Yeah. Artificial design > design that doesn't come from a natural need in the product. LIke adding a handle where no handle is needed just for the sake of it, because the designer thinks it looks better.
Incidentally, the Wikipedia article on Dieter Rams finishes with, "Rams' designs have been very influential on Jonathan Ive of Apple Computers, designer of such products as the iMac and the iPod."
O.W.N.E.D.
@Jesus Diaz: THANK YOU, you do commercial art a great justice. Jesus you are great.
wow the calculator is the SAME as the one on the iphone.
It's only called a "rip-off" if Microsoft does it. For Apple it's just recycled art.
@k3of4: No, if Microsoft does it, it's also art.
The problem is, they don't.
Have been on MoMa for about 3 times now. never notice tht similarity.
I guess because i just went on the free friday, and the museum was packed, with tourists
Wow, scary when you see the radio next to the iPod.
@Jesus Diaz: OK, I've gotta give you that ;)
Its just about clean lines people. The design truths are universal. Copying is done when there is no understanding of the product. Great art is all similar because it understands the design principles.
@ Jesus Diaz - Great post. Totally inspiring.
Picasso once said that originality lay in having the most obscure sources for your ideas...
(and yes I know Rams is not obscure within design circles)
One of my favorite quotes (that i would have never known if not for Civilization 4)
"In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
Saint Exupery (apparently)
This seems to be very true for the designs that are so popular from Apple - not jamming latest doohicky-mobob just for the heck of it!
It's important to appreciate that good design isn't just cooked up in the mind. It's inspired from other great designers too. Good design even from decades past shouldn't be abandonned for it's age, it should be given new purpose in ours. I think that's what Ive does.
@LittleJon: Everyone lives in my head.
From Bauhaus, trace back to classical greek proportions and the golden section.
You can learn a lot from less is more.
Huh. That's actually interesting. I'm not sure we're going to see lighters tomorrow, but who knows?
Can't have fire without air...
Okay. I'm sorry. I'll go stand in the corner for that.
It was funny though.
Reel-to-reels ROCK!!!!! Wish there was some kind of modern equivalent...
Nothing said ''I'm smokin' hip'' like reel machines spinning back in the pad...
Just check ''Pulp Fiction''
W
@Jesus Diaz: Agreed.
Just look at the calculator on iPhone and iPod touch....
A full copy of Rahms most famous calculator for Braun!
Thank you, Jesus. Now I can say, "but, honey, it's ART!" when the FedEx guy shows up with my MacBook Air. ;)