If your kitchen looks with it, if your bathroom is sleek, if your desk has clean lines, thank Dieter Rams. He's the man behind the products at Braun, the great German manufacturer that, for many decades now, has been making our lives modern. More than any other company, Braun has taught us to prefer clean form to surface decoration. Apple's lean iMac, iPhone, iPad—iAnything—wouldn't even exist, without Braun's example. On Aug. 27, the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco opened a survey of great objects by Rams, who was chief of design at Braun from 1961 to 1995. Coffeemakers, calculators, radios, stereos, mixers, shavers—every kind of object for home and office will be on display, one sleeker than another.
Rams has enunciated "10 Principles of Good Design." The pictures in this slide show reveal all 10 at work.
–Blake Gopnik