82 years ago today, the future of product design changed forever when Dieter Rams came bouncing into this world in Wiesbaden, Hessen Germany. Though it would take another 15 years before his design studies would begin in earnest, when he enrolled in the Wiesbaden School of Art to study architecture and interior design, the seeds of creativity had already been planted.
Shortly after graduating (with honors) in 1953, Rams took a position with a Frankfurt-based architect. Two years later, he moved on to worldwide consumer products company Braun as an architect and designer, where Rams took an artistic approach to product design, creating items that were forward-thinking in both their functionality and technology. By 1961, he was Braun’s Chief Design Officer, a position he held until 1995.
In honor of Rams’ 82nd birthday, Gestalten is re-releasing Less But Better—Rams’ groundbreaking (and long out of print) work on the basics of good design. Here are 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Dieter Rams.
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