ddesign and technology: a winning combination. After all, there is also a prize – theiF Product Design Award – which was introduced in 1954 and is awarded annually by the iF International Forum Design.
Along with the Red Dot Design Award is the most important international product design award mainly related to technology. It attracts every year more than 2,000 projects from around 37 countries, which are judged by world-renowned experts.
Then there are companies that have historically based the design of their technological devices on design, as well as on innovation, perceiving the need of users to have something useful, high-performance in their hands, but also aesthetically beautiful to look at and to display.
Design & hi tech: simple, but advanced
Despite the many changes in over 100 years of business, according to Braun some things must and will continue to remain the same: in fact, since its inception, Braun has maintained the principles of what it believes to be ‘Good Design’, i.e. a simple, useful and built for design to last. Over the years, internationally renowned designers have followed one another within the company, such as Dieter Ramshead of design from 1961 to 1995, one of Germany’s leading industrial designers and among the best known in the world, whose legacy has influenced countless modern designs.
Subsequently, from 1995 to 2008, his place was taken by Peter Schneider and since 2009 since Prof. Oliver Grabers, which still follows the company’s new design approach: the ‘strength of purity’. This philosophy promotes a strong, innovative, modern and functional design.
It is an example of this Braun Series X, the hybrid device for trimming, adjusting and shaving. Its peculiarity is its single blade with 4D technology, which has two central and two lateral cutting zones to trim, finish and shave the beard quickly and effortlessly.
Designed to secure further precision and control thanks to the two-way comb, the Series X cuts both upwards and downwards, allowing you to finish the look quickly and effectively. Furthermore, the cage blade design protects the skinwhile the convex shape is specially designed to uniformly redistribute pressure.
Sustainable design and cutting-edge performance
Professor at the Musashino Art University and at the Tama Art University, Naoto Fukasawa is a world famous designer and has published some books such as An Outline of Design (TOTO) and The Ecological Approach to Design (Tokyo Shoseki).
After working as director of the Tokyo branch of the US company IDEO, he founded the Naoto Fukasawa Design in 2003. Among his most representative works we can mention the Muji CD player (part of the MoMA New York permanent collection), the “Infobar” and “neon” mobile phones e the brand of household appliances ±0.
In the past Naoto Fukasawa had over fifty awardsincluding the US IDEA Gold Award, the German Gold Award, the British D&AD Gold Award, and the Mainichi Design Award at the fifth Oribe Award.
Fukasawa also recently collaborated with realme for the design of the smartphone realme GT 2 Pro to create the first design made with biopolymers that is based on the concept of sustainability in paper art. After 12 months of research and 63 prototypes, the final variants of realme GT 2 Pro have incorporated a state of the art craftsmanship and a 0.1mm laser engraving process.
Top technology and aesthetics
A company that has always focused on design, as well as technology, is Samsung. An example of this is the spectacular TV Samsung The Serif developed in collaboration with the Parisian brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec – two of the most famous furniture designers in the world – who through a study of the object and its interaction with the surrounding space, have created a product with a unique aesthetic.
With its disruptive design, The Serif also stands out for the elegant base and the unmistakable capital “I” profile of the typeface serif, today even clearer and more sophisticated for a TV with a look capable of enriching any room. Wherever you place it, it finds ideal harmony with the surrounding space and transmits positive sensations thanks to its pleasant look.
Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec studied at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and at the École des Beaux-Arts in Cergy-Pontoise. Ronan immediately started working as an independent designer after completing his studies, with the help of his brother, then still a student.
Since 1999 the brothers work together in their associated studio in Paris and their creations range from small useful objects to architectural projects.
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