When Hustwit contacted me and told me he was
going ahead with the Rams film, I was delighted. The
unhurried, focused quietness of his filming process
seemed to suit Rams. Although he has done so much
public speaking, being on camera was not something
he appeared to relish. I remember meeting Ive at a
symposium in London, after the Rams monograph was
released, and being struck by how similar they seemed
in some ways: both introverted and appearing to hate
attention, yet both plunged into roles as figureheads of
huge companies when their real passion was being in
their studios designing products that are perfectly suited
to purpose – with as little design as possible.
I talked to Hustwit recently about the way Rams
has been turned into a reluctant icon and how unfair
it seems not to hear more voices from his former team.
It took the work of many people to make the 500-odd
products he is credited with. ‘It’s definitely something
we try to address in the film,’ he says. ‘Rams talks a lot
about the collaborative nature of the design andengineering departments at Braun. And I think, looking
back, he wishes the designs had been credited to the
whole team, not to any individual designer. Braun
pushed him to the forefront, but I don’t think he was
personally trying to hog all the credit. Yet even when
other members of his team were credited, those
designs and anything produced in that mindset just get
lumped together as being designed by Dieter Rams.’
Rams premieres in September. Brian Eno, also a fan
of Rams’ work, has provided the soundtrack. Hustwit
is currently preparing for a gruelling world tour of
premieres – the demand is huge. I told him about Rams’
advice to me, just before I started writing the book,
about how I should try to make something that was
as little book as possible, in line with his core principle:
‘Good design is as little design as possible’. ‘I initially
envisioned this film to be only in Dieter’s voice,’ says
Hustwit. ‘I wanted it to be his own story in his own
words, and my plan was that only if I absolutely needed
additional context would I bring in another voice.
I was also trying to make the film as simple as possible,
almost using Rams’ ten principles in the design of
the film. As a result, there are only a handful of other
people interviewed in the film, and they had to have
an organic connection to him. So there’s you, [Vitsœ’s
managing director] Mark Adams, Dieter’s Braun
compatriot Dietrich Lubs, and designer Naoto
Fukasawa. There are many other people who appear
in vérité scenes in the film, but those are the only
people interviewed. It’s also like, “Good filmmaking
is as little filmmaking as possible”. I couldn’t make a
messy, cluttered film about Dieter Rams!’
hustwit.com. Wallpaper* is partnering with Gary Hustwit
for screenings of Rams in London and Berlin. For details
and to read our Q&A with Hustwit, visit Wallpaper.com ∏SCREEN GRAB
Promotional film posters by Build’s Michael C Place, featuring,
clockwise from top left, the ET66 calculator (Braun, 1976), the
T41 radio (Braun, 1962), the 606 Universal Shelving System
(Vitsœ, 1960) and the 620 chair (Vitsœ, 1962).ABOVE LEFT, THE T3 POCKET
RADIO, DESIGNED IN 1958
BY DIETER RAMS FOR BRAUN,
FEATURES A SCROLL WHEELON THE RECORD
The cover of Wallpaper’s
October 2007 issue, guest
edited by Rams, featured the
Tonarmwaage record player
balancer, designed for Braun
in 1962. It also includes
Sophie Lovell’s interview
with Rams in Frankfurt, a
16-page photoshoot directed
by Rams of his favourite
products, and a conversation
with Japanese designer
Naoto Fukasawa on Braun,
Olivetti, Apple and bonsai.Intelligence
138 ∑