The grandfather of the iPod

The ‘revolutionary’ modern designs of companies such as Apple, Muji and Nokia owe their aesthetic to one man – Dieter Rams – who single-handedly transformed the world of industrial design

A MAN whose work dates back to when valves and tubes were the cutting edge of audio technology, may seem an unlikely progenitor of the most defining and desirable artifacts of the digital age.

But the influence of venerable German designer Dieter Rams is so enduring that products such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad bear his unmistakable stylistic stamp, nearly 60 years after he created his first classic pieces.

Rams, who is the subject of an exhibition in Dublin next month, may not be a household name, but for decades his work was ubiquitous in homes across the world. As the design director for German electronics firm Braun, he oversaw the manufacture of a wide array of appliances – from stereos and calculators to electric razors and alarm clocks – that shared the spare, clean style that became his trademark.

In his 41 years at Braun, he transformed the ethos and practice of industrial design and challenged people’s perception of household goods. In the process he helped usher in the consumer society, albeit unwittingly.

The philosophy driving Rams’s minimalist designs is summed up by his phrase, “Less but better”, which is also the title of the forthcoming exhibition.

Curated by graphic designers Shane O’Donoghue and James Earley, the show includes 11 of Rams’s most famous products, photographs of others and specially commissioned pieces from Irish designers inspired by his work. It showcases the German’s enduring aesthetic, which highlights functionality while paying meticulous attention to harmonious appearance.

Born in 1932, Rams had been an architecture student and an apprentice cabinetmaker before he joined Braun in 1955. Almost immediately, he made his mark, co-designing the seminal SK4 record player in 1956. Nicknamed “Snow White’s Coffin”, its revolutionary Perspex canopy provided better sound than previous metal covers, while its colour scheme heralded Rams’s stark monochrome palette. Where such goods had previously sought to blend in with the furniture, the SK4 stood out.

“What was new was that in the 1950s you had brown-coloured radios and televisions,” says O’Donoghue. “Rams thought that if we live with these products, why have them fade in background?” Over the next few years, Braun brought Rams’s credo of uncluttered looks and durable manufacture to bear on everything from cigarette lighters to food processors. “Functionality was important for him,” says O’Donoghue. “A product should be a pleasure to use and a pleasure to look at it.”

The designer’s harmonious combination of visual purity and efficient engineering epitomised Germany’s economic turnaround of the 1950s, though it also had echoes of the country’s post-war austerity; products had to be built to last.

But if there was an ascetic quality to Rams’s design philosophy – later distilled into his so-called “10 commandments” – the distinctively utilitarian products he created ironically became objects of desire themselves, helping fuel the growing appetite for consumer statement pieces.

By the 1980s, his approach had fallen out of vogue as more visually playful post-modernist designs thrived, from companies such as Swatch and Alessi.

Rams left Braun in 1995, though he continues to work with Vitsoe, the furniture company which for 50 years has produced innovative shelf units, first made in 1960.

However, he has enjoyed a resurgence in influence of late, with companies such as Muji, Nokia and, especially, Apple obviously in his debt.

Jonathan Ive, Apple’s chief designer, uses the same language of restricted colours, incorporated materials and user-friendly simplicity for the company’s statement products: indeed, viewed from above, the SK4 looks like a prototype iPod.

The way such goods have become fetishised in their own right is part of Rams’s legacy: he helped transform what were essentially tools into something more pleasing and desirable. But it is an ambiguous legacy.

Rams’s commandment that “good design is durable” seems incompatible with a company such as Apple, which though innovative (another key principle) also thrives on consumers upgrading rapidly obsolete goods.

Overall, however, Rams helped revolutionise how we interact with our home space while, crucially, making things work better. He may be getting on in years – “We invited him to come but he declined due to old age,” says O’Donoghue – but the impact of his timeless designs is as strong as ever.

Less But Better

opens at the Exchange, Dublin, on April 7; see curateanddesign.com