Dieter Rams celebrated his 85th birthday on May 20, 2017. Designers Apple and Braun are immensely grateful to his genius. Rams is loved and appreciated for what he has proven: a home appliance can be beautiful, elegant, comfortable. Rams has shaped the image of consumer electronics, which we now consider obvious, seemingly not the other way around, but once its developments were a breakthrough.

Calculators, televisions, radios, electric shavers, watches, juicers, video cameras, as well as office chairs, shelves and toothbrushes - the number of objects designed by them is in the hundreds. Rams sought to reduce the design to the minimum simple in form and the most saturated with functions. He spent 18 weeks only to find the optimal position of the handles on the transistor case. I thought up to highlight the calculator buttons with the color in order to simplify the work, created a transparent cover on the player for vinyl records, set the handle of the dryer at an angle. In the radio, the PC3SV combined the on / off function with volume control in one knob. At the same time he divided the adjustment of the long-wave and short-wave ranges, and also added an alarm clock and access to external speakers.

“Good design is as little design as possible.”

Loudspeaker L 2, and Braun. 1958.

Dieter Rams formulated "10 principles of good object design", which became a kind of "multiplication table" of design for modern authors. These postulates are simple, but we must understand that Rams did not take them ready, but suffered with practice. So, according to Dieter Rams, the good design is:

1. Innovative, created in partnership with technology (and innovation is not an end in itself).

2. Makes the subject convenient (optimizes its use).

3. Aesthetic (forms the environment and determines the state of man).

4. Makes the subject understandable (creates a transparent structure).

5. Honest (does not try to seem what he is not).

6. Unobtrusive (does not liken the thing to decor and a work of art).

7. Durable (does not carry anything very fashionable, and therefore does not go out of fashion).

8. Eco-friendly (saves resources, minimizes physical and visual pollution).

9. Consistent to the last detail (nothing accidental; thoroughness and accuracy - a sign of respect for the consumer).

10. Finally, a good design is as little design as possible (concentrates on the essential, does not overload).

Radio Braun. Apple Tz y Pod.

In the subject design, the name Rams is beyond criticism. German pros are valued and quoted by compatriot Konstantin Grcic, Briton Jasper Morisson, Austrian Robert Stadler, Japanese Naoto Fukasawa, Oki Sato, French brothers Burulleka, Christoph Pilier, Italians Piero Lissoni, Antonio Citterio and adore automotive designers of the world The authority of Rams is indisputable even among the obvious enemies of rationalism and functionalism, such as the brothers Campana and Marcel Wanders. Wanders, “Lady Gaga” of modern design, says: “I love Rams, admire him, listen to him. Although with a reservation: to what extent can it be simplified? Minimalism is for experts who analyze the product, and my mom doesn't care - she needs a bright design. Not just a functional object, but an object that you like. ”

Dieter Rams was born in 1932 in Wiesbaden, a town near Frankfurt am Main. There he studied architecture and interior design at an art school, and was trained at a local carpentry workshop. At the age of 23 he joined the Braun company. And at first he was responsible for the interiors, and at thirty headed its design department, he remained in this position until 1995. In parallel, he made furniture for the company Otto Zapf, which since 1969 is called Vitsoe. It was thanks to Rams that Braun, an ordinary manufacturer of radio receivers, grew to become an industry giant whose home appliances entered millions of homes around the world.

Universal shelf system 606, Vitsoe. 1960

For 16 years, until 1997, Dieter Rams taught at the High School of Fine Arts of Hamburg, was President of the German Council on Shaping. London Royal College of Art awarded him the title of Honorary Lecturer. On account of the designer numerous exhibitions, international awards, including the Red Dot Award, as well as a considerable number of items in museums around the world, including the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA). Several years ago, on the eve of his 80th birthday, Dieter Rams ordered the transfer of the most important design objects from the Braun collection to the Museum of Applied Arts in Frankfurt am Main. 243 exhibits "Rams era" form the basis of a new section of the permanent exhibition of the museum.