December 2008
For over 40 years, from 1955 until the late 1990s, Dieter Rams designed or oversaw the design of over 500 products at German consumer goods maker Braun.
Products created by Rams hold a special place in the history of industrial design, a discipline which emerged at the dawn of mechanisation and mass production, and which parallels our age of technological innovation.
Just as Rams inherited the functionalist German design spirit that characterised the Bauhaus and the Ulm School of Design, so too have designers the world over inherited his spirit in the 21st century.
One important thing to note about Rams is that although he was just one employee in a large company, he explored an approach to design that saw it become closely involved with each step of the development process, from initial product planning to design, manufacture and even advertising.
In this exhibition, the products of Rams and Braun Design Team are displayed alongside sketches, prototypes, mock-ups, and other items, a total of over 300 exhibits providing important clues for elucidating the designer's philosophy.
In addition, to depict the cultural backdrop within which Rams and the Team worked, many historical designs and artworks are exhibited.
With three themes and seven sections, the exhibition is much more than a Dieter Rams retrospective; it provides an overview of the 20th century's currents of Modernism and modernisation.
From our position as the consumers and manufacturers of the 21st century, we can look back on this history, with its legacy of greatly accelerated lifestyle and industry, and see clearly both the problems and the great potential inherent in design.
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