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Braun

Founded 1921 Frankfurt, Germany

In 1921 the engineer Max Braun (1890-1951) established a manufacturing company in Frankfurt to produce connectors for drive belts and scientific apparatus. In 1923 he began producing components for the newly emerging radio industry. Following the advent of plastic pellets in 1925, he was quick to seize upon this new material, using homemade presses to manufacture components such as dials and knobs. In 1929 the company began producing its own radio sets, which were some of the first to incorporate the receiver and speaker in a single unit. In 1932 the company expanded its product range and became one of the first manufacturers to introduce radio/phonograph combination sets. Braun developed a battery-powered radio in 1936 and a year later won an award at the Paris "Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne" for its "exceptional achievements in phonographs".

By 1947 the company was mass-producing radio sets, albeit still styled as furniture rather than as Modern electronic equipment. In 1950 Braun developed its first electric razor, the S50. This shaver incorporated an oscillating cutter-block screened by a thin steel shaver foil - a system that is still used today. The same year Braun also branched into domestic appliances with the Multimix. After the death of Max Braun, the firm was headed by his two sons, Artur (b. 1925) and Erwin (b. 1921), who decided to implement a radical design programme that was both rational and systematic. In 1953 Erwin identified a marketing opportunity for distinctive radios that were "honest, unobtrusive and practical devices" and embodied a Modern aesthetic. To this end, Wilhelm Wagenfeld and designers associated with the Hochschule fur Cestaltung in Ulm, an academy of design, such as Fritz Eichler (1911-1991), were commissioned in 1954 to redesign the company's radios and phonographs. This new Braun line was introduced at the Dusseldorf Radio Fair in 1955 and attracted international acclaim. 1966 saw the establishment of an in-house design department headed by Eichler, who proceeded to formulate a coherent corporate style based on geometric simplicity, utility and a functionalist approach to the design process. The Braun design vocabulary was not only used for products but was also applied to all areas of corporate identity, including packaging, logos and advertising. Eichler also commissioned other designers associated with the Hochschule fur Gestaltung, such as Otl Aicher, Hans Gugelot and Dieter Rams to design sleek, unornamented products. In 1955 Gerd Alfred Müller (b. 1932) joined the Braun design team and was responsible for some of the company's best-known designs from the late 1950s, including the KM 3 multi-purpose kitchen mixer (1957), which embodied the austere rationalist aesthetic that became synonymous with German post-war design. In 1961 Dieter Rams was appointed head of the company's design department, and in 1968 overall director of design. Rams was to head the Braun design team for some 40 years, and his pared-down functionalist aesthetic permeated all the products it manufactured, from kitchen equipment to alarm clocks to electric shavers. During his tenure, Braun introduced a series of landmark designs including the Permanent lighter (1966), which incorporated an electromagnetic device rather than a traditional friction cylinder, the ET 22 electronic pocket calculator (1976) and the first radio-controlled clock (1977). In 1967 the Boston-based Gillette Company acquired a controlling stake in Braun AG. A year later, the International Braun Awards for design in engineering were established. In 1983 the company was itself awarded the first Corporate Design Award at the Hanover trade fair for its "exemplary conception of product design, information and presentation".

In 1990 Braun discontinued its hi-fi production so as to concentrate on the manufacture of personal grooming products, such as the Silk-épil EE 1 depilator (1989), the highly successful Flex Control line of electric razors (1990) and the Plak Control D 5 electric toothbrush (1991), as well as a range of hair-dryers. During the 1990s Braun also introduced innovative coffee machines, food processors, hand mixers, irons and alarm clocks. In 1996 Braun launched the Thermoscan infrared thermometer, which marked its entry into the personal diagnostic appliance market. Certainly, Braun's success stems from the fact that its products are jointly developed by designers, engineers and marketing experts in accordance with basic design principles. The company uses design innovation to achieve technical and functional innovation and has established a tradition of progressiveness within its design team. The strong aesthetic clarity of its products is the outcome of a logical ordering of elements and the quest for a harmonious and unobtrusive totality. Braun acknowledges that "integrated working methods are ultimately reflected in the obviousness of the product expression", and asserts that "Braun Design is the orientation towards lasting worthwhile values, innovation, distinctive, desirable, functional, clear, honest, aesthetic."