1 Good design is innovative.
The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design.
2 Good design makes a product useful.
A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.
3 Good design is aesthetic.
The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products we use every day affect our person and our well-being. But only well-executed objects can be beautiful.
4 Good design makes a product understandable.
It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product talk. At best, it is self-explanatory.
5 Good design is unobtrusive.
Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.
6 Good design is honest.
It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
7 Good design is long-lasting.
It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years - even in today’s throwaway society.
8 Good design is thorough to the last detail.
Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.
9 Good design is environmentally friendly.
Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimises physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.
10 Good design is as little design as possible.
Less, but better - because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with nonessentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.
1953 | Braun Factory
Braun Multimix Blender
The 50's established the milkshake as a western staple, enabled in part by the Multimix, the state-of-the-art blender with a detachable mixing glass container. It cuts ingredients with industrial-grade efficacy. Still widely in use today.
1957 | Gerd Alfred Müller
KM3/31
A hugely influential blender or “food processor” as it was known that birthed a whole new product category: “kitchen machines” or appliances. With its hyper-reduced, simple and useful design one of the most influential industrial products of all time.
1963 | Reinhold Weiss
KSM 1/11
Design doesn’t get much more minimalistic than this: a coffee grinder so purpose-built it needed just one, centrally placed button to operate. Finely ground beans were just a finger click away.
1963 | Reinhold Weiss
HT 2
This toaster’s sleek, reduced design so inspired renowned artist Richard Hamilton that he based one of his works (aptly titled ‘Toaster’) on it. Oh, and it also browned bread to perfection.
1972 | Florian Seiffert
KF 20
With a stacked, vertical design that resembled a water tower, the KF 20 was known as the Aromaster. Instantly recognizable for its unconventional shape, this coffee maker added a touch of the extraordinary to everyday morning filter coffee.
1972 | Jürgen Greubel, Dieter Rams
MPZ 22
This electric juicer, also known as the citromatic, was a dependable and incredibly easy-to-clean staple of kitchens across the world for decades. It took over two decades before Braun decided an update to the original design was due.
1981 | Ludwig Littmann
MR 6
A precursor of the more sophisticated MR 500, the MR 6 was sturdy and tough, meaning it could blend foods that other products couldn't handle. An important stepping stone on the way to perfecting the handheld blender.
1984 | Hartwig Kahlcke
KF 40
This coffeemaker was somehow controversial within Braun, being made of cost-efficient polypropylene rather than sturdier polycarbonate, Braun's go-to plastic. Hence the KF 40's corrugated surface states a design solution that won over Dieter Rams.
2016 | Markus Orthey, Ludwig Littmann
MultiQuick 9
An all-round food blender that condensed the functionalities of devices many times its size into a simple, handheld 'wand'. The definition of reduced design: compact, yet powerful.
