9 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
German consumer electronics company founded in 1921 — which under Dieter Rams's design leadership in the 1960s–80s produced the most influential body of consumer product design in history — with products so clearly anticipating Apple's design language that Apple's products are routinely compared to Braun objects.
German industrial designer who served as chief design officer at Braun from 1961 to 1995 — creating the most influential body of consumer product design of the 20th century — and whose Ten Principles of Good Design became the philosophical foundation for Apple's design under Jony Ive.
British industrial designer who spent 5 years and built 5,127 prototypes to perfect a bagless vacuum cleaner — then built Dyson into a multi-billion dollar engineering company — whose story is the defining modern narrative of iterative product development.
British industrial designer who served as Apple's Chief Design Officer from 1992 to 2019 — designing the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and Apple Watch — making him the most influential industrial designer of the computing era.
Italian industrial designer and architect known for the Memphis Group's radical design movement in the 1980s — designing the First Chair and other iconic Memphis pieces — and later for institutional design work for Deutsche Bank, Enel, and major Italian companies.
Rhode Island School of Design, one of the world's most prestigious art and design schools, whose alumni include Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia — whose shared RISD training directly shaped Airbnb's design-first product philosophy.
American industrial designer who led Apple's industrial design group from 1989 to 1996 — establishing the design infrastructure and hiring practices (including hiring Jony Ive) that Ive then built upon — before leaving to found Ammunition Group.
American footwear designer and Nike VP of Design who created the Air Jordan III through VII and numerous other iconic Nike silhouettes — credited with saving the Jordan partnership after Michael Jordan had nearly left Nike.
Hartmut Esslinger is a German industrial designer who founded Frog Design, a company that played a significant role in shaping the aesthetic of modern consumer electronics, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, with clients like Apple and Sony.