Dieter Rams

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Image courtesy of September Industry.

Seems like there’s a ton of stuff going on around Dieter Rams and his legendary work.

There’s the “Less and More – The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams” exhibit at the Design Museum in London.

To coincide with the event, a book with the same name will be released by Gestalten this month which features all of Rams’ products as well as selected sketches and models. They also have a video interview with Rams on their website.

The excellent design agency Bibliotheque has created two stunning posters dedicated to Rams’ legacy. The first, which is pictured here, is titled “Dieter Rams’ Ten Principles” and features his ten principles for good design. They were commissioned by Vitsœ to create the poster, which is currently available on their site.

The second lovely poster they designed is titled “Dieter Rams T1000” and features an illustration of the Braun T1000 shortwave receiver. It will be screen printed and should be available this week.

And finally we have the retrospective book “BRAUN – Fifty Years of Design and Innovation” that celebrates 50 years of the Braun brand. The book is slated to be released in 2010 but you can pre-order it now through Amazon.

Wheew! That was a lot! Enjoy.
       

Dieter Rams Less and More

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“Good design is as little design as possible.”

Damn right. Words to live by.

Dieter Rams is one of the most influential industrial designers of this past century. Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple, is heavily influenced by Rams’ work. You can see huge similarities between Apple and classic Braun products in their simplicity, beauty and function.

From November 18 – March 14, The Design Museum in London is having an exhibition titled “Dieter Rams Less and More“. The exhibition will showcase Rams’ inspiring designs for Braun and Vitsœ. I might have to head to London just to see this.

To satisfy your fix, here’s a short documentary of Rams, a Dieter Rams Flickr group and a Braun Flickr group showcasing the classic Braun designs.
       

The Lost Poster

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We’re all familiar with the silver Objectified poster, but Michael C. Place designed a second version with a white background and silver objects and black text that wasn’t used. It’s now being released as a limited edition letterpress, printed in metallic black and silver ink, on Crane’s Lettra 300gsm paper. Sounds like heaven.

It’s being printed by the awesome Brooklyn based Coeur Noir Letterpress, the same folks that printed the Helvetica poster and my son’s baptism invitation. They do stellar work.

Only 100 will be printed and you can grab one for $125.        

Objectified Poster

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The exceptionally talented Michael C. Place has designed this damn sexy poster for the new Gary Hustwit documentary Objectified. Sized at 27″ x 39″ and lithographed, it features illustrations of objects created by the designers in the film. The poster will be one sale very soon at the Objectified store.        

The Nooka Zub

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One of my many obsessions is a well designed watch. People that know me personally know that I always have a “weird” watch strapped to my arm. There are a few qualities I look for in a well designed watch. For one it has to have a minimal design and two, the way the time is displayed has to be unique. Nooka creates watches that exhibit both qualities, and exceptionally I might add.

For those not familiar, Nooka was founded by artist and designer, Matthew Waldman, to create a more intuitive way to view time through linear and graphic representations. A company that makes well designed products that work and make sense. Nooka is one of my favorite product companies, right behind Apple, because of their aesthetics and innovation. They just get it.

I personally own a Zub Zenv sg 38 in black. I absolutely love it. Most of the watch is made of a soft, breathable plastic that is extremely comfortable. The new time display takes a few hours to get use to, but once you do you’ll realize that it makes much more sense.

The watch above is the Zub ZenH in Fire Engine Red, which will be available at the end of February. You can pre-order it for $130.

And no, this isn’t paid advertisement. I just love the damn company.        

Objectified

The logo and poster above were designed by Build.

Objectified is a feature-length independent documentary about industrial design. It’s a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It’s about the people who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability. It’s about our relationship to mass-produced objects and, by extension, the people who design them.

Through vérité footage and in-depth conversations, the film documents the creative processes of some of the world’s most influential designers, and looks at how the things they make impact our lives. What can we learn about who we are, and who we want to be, from the objects with which we surround ourselves?

Read director Gary Hustwit’s post about the film.

Objectified is currently in production and will have its world premiere in early 2009.

Featuring
Paola Antonelli (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
Chris Bangle (BMW Group, Munich)
Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec (Paris)
Andrew Blauvelt (Walker Art Center, Minneapolis)
Anthony Dunne (London)
Naoto Fukasawa (Tokyo)
IDEO (Palo Alto)
Jonathan Ive (Apple, California)
Hella Jongerius (Rotterdam)
Marc Newson (London/Paris)
Fiona Raby (London)
Dieter Rams (Kronberg, Germany)
Karim Rashid (New York)
Alice Rawsthorn (International Herald Tribune)
Rob Walker (New York Times Magazine)
and more participants TBA

You can purchase the limited-edition screenprint above that was designed by Build.