We love the aesthetics, functionalty & design idea of the products which came out of Braun & Dieter Rams office especially in the 60´ties.
The well curated website www.Dasprogramm.org showcase a broad selection of Dieter Rams work for both Braun & Vitsoe, and work as both an archive but also sell the hard to find products. We did a q&a with founder of the website Dasprogramm.org Dr. Peter Kapos and got around topics like the enjoyment of collecting and thoughts on what Braun clothes would have looked like.
JOURNAL:
-In terms of Dieter Rams and Braun, what caught your interest?
DR.PETER KAPOS:
First of all, I was attracted by the programmatic aspect of Braun Design. There are some great individual designs but what is truly extraordinary is that all of the many designs, and there are thousands of them, cohere as a unity. No other manufacturer for the mass market has achieved this level of rigor, let alone sustain it over 40 years (1955 – 1995).
JOURNAL:
-What are the thoughts behind Das Programm?
DR.PETER KAPOS:
Collecting is more about searching than finding. Basically, it’s a perverse enjoyment of longing. Collecting Braun Design is very satisfying from this point of view, because its objects are absurdly hard to find in a satisfactory state, if they can be found at all. Senior design professionals, typically my customers, don’t have time to ‘collect’ in this way. If they want an SK 5 phonosuper, they want it available immediately in museum condition and full working order. That’s where I come in.
The website is also intended to serve as an archive of Braun Design. The idea is to show the whole program, which is why it’s divided into categories. This is also the reason why I bother presenting items that I never expect to sell.
JOURNAL:
-The aesthetics obviously play a big role in the Braun design era. Are there from your point of view, any other companies carrying the same level of aesthetics?
DR.PETER KAPOS:
I’m not aware of any that have achieved the unity of Braun Design so consistently over such as long period of time. But I do have a lot of time for Lamy, Erco, Olivetti, IBM, FSB. In some ways Muji are more Braun than Braun in having fully succeeded in reaching the mass market with good design across a whole range of segments. I do wonder what Braun clothing would have looked like…
JOURNAL:
-The Ulm school of design play a big role in the Braun design era, but how did it contribute to the general industrial design scene?
DR.PETER KAPOS:
This is a difficult issue because the school was certainly influential, but not in the way it would have chosen to be. It was rather like the Bauhaus in that respect. It’s utopian ideals where not fulfilled through industrial design. Nevertheless, the school was influential. Braun Design simply would not have come about without the contribution of the HfG Ulm. Arguably, Apple Design, in its present form, would not exist without the HfG. The work of Otl Aicher, HfG rector and lecturer, for Braun, Lufthansa, Erco, FSB, Buthaup, the ‘72 Munich Olympics, etc, has had a profound influence on corporate self-presentation.
JOURNAL:
-Dieter Rams made some iconic furniture for Vitsoe. What are your furniture favorites?
DR.PETER KAPOS:
The RZ 60 (now 606) Universal Shelving System is close to perfect. It’s still in production in a form very close to the original design. The only thing that threatens to date this now 55 year old design is that the requirement for extensive shelving may fall away as the form of media increasingly moves to digital.
JOURNAL:
-Apple claim to be inspired by the Braun design. How do you see this interpretation?
DR.PETER KAPOS:
I’m not sure what Apple’s stated relation to Braun Design is. I consider it to be highly derivative from a stylistic point of view. Interestingly they have nothing in common at all from the point of view of offering a program. At it’s height Braun Design aimed for a program ecompassing hundreds of products as an interlocked group. Apple Design seems to offer singular products intended to be rendered redundant very shortly by the appearance new singular products, and so on… They’ve turned something fixed and coherent into an accelerated series without end. If you can see the utopian social implications of Braun Design’s program, you will also see how Apple Design, far from being close to Braun Design, actually turns it on its head.
JOURNAL:
-At some point Braun changed their aesthetics and direction, what happened?
DR.PETER KAPOS:
The simple answer is acquisition followed by economic rationalisation. In ‘69 by Gillette, then in ‘98 by Proctor and Gamble. Braun have recently turned their focus back upon design. It will be interesting to see what arises from this in years to come.
JOURNAL:
Any Braun products that you use on a daily basis?
DR.PETER KAPOS:
Many: TS 45 / L450 wall-mounted system with PCS 52 E record player, KMM 1 coffee grinder, ET 20 espresso machine, HT 6 toaster, AW 10, AW 50 T, AW 50 P, DW 20 wrist watches, ABW 30 wall clock, Oral B Advantage toothbrush.
Check out the site at : www.dasprogramm.org
All image right dasprogramm.org