dieter rams: designboom interview
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dieter rams: designboom interview


dieter rams
© designboom

dieter rams was born may 20, 1932 in wiesbaden, germany.
in 1947 he enrolled in architecture at the 'werkkunstschule wiesbaden' for one year,
after which he left school and learned the carpenter’s trade.
he graduated in 1953, and then collaborated with otto apel’s architecture firm for
three years. in 1955 he got a job as an architect and interior designer for braun,
founded in 1921 by max braun, and in 1956 he began to design products for them.
in 1957 he started to design furniture projects for 'otto zapf'
(since 1959 'vitsoe & zapf', 'wiese vitsoe' and since 1995 'sdr+').
in 1961 he became the head of the product design and development division at ‘braun’.
in 1968 he became the design and production manager, and in the same year he was
awarded the title 'royal designer for industry' by london’s 'royal soceity of arts'.
in 1978 he won the ‘siad medal’ by the society of industrial artists and designers,
london.
from 1981 to 1997 he taught at the 'hochschule fuer bildene kuenste' in hamburg.
in 1984 he began to collaborate with ‘de padova’ in milan, reworking his classic
'universal shelving system 606', produced by vitsoe in wood and steel, to be able
to produce it in alluminum.
in 1988 he became executive director of ‘braun’, until 1997.
in 1991 he was awarded doctor honoris causa by the 'royal college of arts', london
in 1996 he won the 'world design medal' by the industrial designer soceity of america.
most of his designs for ‘braun’ have become part of the permanent collections of many
prestigious international museums, his pieces are at the 'moma', new york, the
'werkbund archiv', berlin, the 'victoria & albert museum', london, the 'stedeljik' museum,
amsterdam ...
he has been awarded many prizes, like the 'compasso d'oro' and the 'medaglia d'oro'
at the milan triennale, the 'gute form' prize and the 'rosenthal studio preis'


left: 'chair program 601' , 1960 for vitsoe (out of production)
right: hairdryer for braun, braun design department, dieter rams
andrea db
10.30.00  
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dieter rams (3 articles)

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2

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0

less and more - the design ethos of dieter ra
design | 11.12.09

this exhibition at the design museum will showcase rams' landmark designs for braun and furniture manufacturer vitsœ looking at how his philosophy of design influenced braun's product range for over 40 years, assess...

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