Did Dieter Rams design the iPod?

A few blogs in the US have recently been abuzz with claims that Jonathan Ives' designs for Apple bear more than passing similarities to seminal designer Dieter Rams' creations for Braun, designed decades ago. For many followers of design, this is not really news as it has already been covered in books and magazines - ICON magazine mentioned it a few years ago, for example - and even Rams himself has commented on it (he's rumoured to be a fan of Apple, by the way).

The iPod is similar to Rams' T3 radio and we could find similarities in other products, but we could probably pick thousands of products which have been 'inspired' by Rams' designs. Additionally, the similarities may well be due to the fact that both designers seek to create minimalist designs - doing away with unnecessary fiddly bits - and both do so very successfully. The huge tech-site Gizmodo calls Ive a 'design genius', but in the next sentence pretty much says that he's ripped-off Rams wholesale by claiming that '[W]hat most people don't know is that there's another man whose products are at the heart of Ive's design philosophy, an influence that permeates every single product at Apple.' Well, that's not entirely true, it does Ive a disservice, and the pictures doing the rounds on the blogs conveniently turn the radio on its side when comparing it to the iPod; the original is pictured below.

The iPod didn't become the industry-leading media player because it's packed with features, as some of my tech-loving friends have pointed out to me on numerous occasions, but it certainly looks much nicer than most of the competition (seriously, could you imagine Apple releasing a brown iPod?) and it is very easy to use. This is not just true for the first-generation iPod, but for all subsequent models. I personally believe that the current iPod Shuffle will go down as a design classic; incredibly functional and great to look at, bolstered by a brilliant marketing campaign. This would not have happened without Ive, and one only needs to look at Apple's computers before he became their chief designer. He revolutionised computer design, with some people claiming that he single-handedly made computers 'sexy'.

So is Dieter Rams the one who should be getting the credit for the iPod? No, of course not. Ive probably has been influenced by Rams' designs, and he shares his design ethic, but how many industrial designers have not been influenced by Rams in one way or another? He is a design legend and unless you have spent the last fifty years in a cave, it is virtually impossible not to come across, and appreciate, his work if you are interested in industrial design. Take a look at some designs by the likes of Naoto Fukasawa, for example, and one could make very similar comparisons.

Instead of making comparisons, however, people should be thankful for the likes of Jonathan Ive and give him the respect he deserves. +

- RK.

Comments

[Fabio]

did Rams designed T3?

here is TR-1, the first pocket radio designed 3 years before by the firm of Painter, Teague and Petertil, from Chicago IL..

http://retrothing.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/regencymagazineadvert.jpg

guys, thats how design goes.. there is no way to tell if the designer copied or created something! Let's just focus on the definition of good design!