EDITO
CLOSEIt’s Christmas time, the time for offerings and idols. Many people will probably be buying and/or receiving Apple items without knowing nothing of Dieter Rams both Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive, chief designer of Apple, have always claimed as their big influence. Considering design should invade everyday life to relieve men of the power of things, he joined the German electrical appliances manufacturer Braun in 1955 as an interior architect just as it was in the process of revolutionising domestic-appliance design. Within months he was designing record players, radios and razors. By 1961 he was head of design for the whole company. His aesthetic signature : rounded corners, very few buttons, a lot of white, soft volumes and ten commandements :
Good design is innovative.
Good design makes a product useful.
Good design is aesthetic.
Good design makes a product understandable.
Good design is unobtrusive.
Good design is honest.
Good design is long-lasting.
Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
Good design is environmentally friendly.
Good design is as little design as possible.
With great designers like that, are men really relieved of the power of things ?
