Braun occupy a special, ¿unique?, position not only in the mythology of product design but also in the (hi)story of West Germany; arguably no brand is as closely related with and to West Germany as Braun. With the exhibition Braun 100 the Bröhan-Museum, Berlin, explore the development of design at Braun in the post-War decades and in doing so help one approach differentiated understandings of not only Braun and Braun design, but also of the relationships between Braun, design and West
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When asked by the (smow)boss yesterday why we appeared to be doing so little work, quoting Dieter Rams we replied with a tired repetition of one of our favourite design related jokes: "Less, but better" "Good design is honest" replied (smow)boss with an irritating accuracy. "Good design is unobtrusive" we muttered under our breath, before skulking off to the warehouse. This coming weekend the Dieter Rams retrospective "Less and More: Das design ethos von Dieter Rams" opens at the Museum
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One of the reasons we never pursued a career as film reviewers is that writing in the dark is so difficult. Compared to those notes that we write in darkened cinemas the Rosetta Stone appears as if it was set in Helvetica 8. And so it is that from our trip to "Objectified" at the IFC Centre in New York, the only words we can clearly read are "organic popcorn". It was, and it was lovely. Fortunately we know people who can read our hand writing and they have now finished the translation
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