Design by Dieter Rams

RB sent me this information about design genius Dieter Rams and the huge influence his products for Braun from the 1960's has had on familiar Apple products like the iPod and iMac. The article generously distinguishes this "borrowing" from straightforward "rip-off" but I'm not sure I am inclined to be so charitable.... given that Apple is so totally revered for their brilliant design. I suppose Apple should get kudos for (1) even thinking about good design and (2) choosing such great ideas to steal.

But what happens to Apple if any of their competitors figure out that they too can design good products by using Rams's ideas? Although RB points out, no doubt correctly, that executing the ideas is still difficult, the fact that Apple's head design guru is not coming up with his own stuff to me undermines what has been one of Apple's primary advantages over other technology companies. It gives me the impression that Apple is a lot more vulnerable than I had previously believed.

I also think this slide viewer (from this portfolio) is just seriously awesome looking. (Part of the appeal is that it has an alive robot quality reminiscent of R2D2.)