[HN Gopher] Visiting the annual Braun collectors fair
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Visiting the annual Braun collectors fair
Author : farslan
Score : 131 points
Date : 2024-05-05 16:09 UTC (1 days ago)
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| simple10 wrote:
| Braun has an incredible design legacy. I had no idea there's an
| annual collectors fair. Add that to my bucket list.
| RapperWhoMadeIt wrote:
| Hi Fatih, I just wanted to let you know that I am a very avid
| reader of your email newsletter. I really get happy every time an
| email with one of your new articles arrives at my inbox. Thanks
| to your reviews of keyboards I will hopefully soon be able to get
| one of them myself. In summary, I just wanted to thank you for
| taking the time to write the articles. It's definitely more time
| consuming than tweeting (I don't have a twitter account at all, I
| dislike the atmosphere there and I also prefer to consume longer
| texts with more content), so I just wanted to let you know that
| there's a bunch of people out here reading your texts and
| enjoying them!
| farslan wrote:
| Hi there. Thanks a lot for the kind words. One of the reasons I
| started to spend more time on my blog is because of the reasons
| you listed. I know X/Twitter has still its place, but I've
| discovered that people like to read long-form with nice
| pictures.
| maxglute wrote:
| Apart from watches, Braun design language last couple decades
| have felt pretty uninspired.
| farslan wrote:
| I agree. However since 2009 the Head of Design has been Oliver
| Grabes, and I love where is he heading. He started to think
| more about legacy Braun design and started incorporating old
| design elements in their never elements.
| zemvpferreira wrote:
| Personally I don't think you can capture lightning in a
| bottle twice. Dieter's principles were absorbed into the
| culture, which is really as good as it gets.
|
| Important product categories are different, households are
| different, maybe more importantly than anything mass
| manufacturing processes are completely different. Braun
| products of the past pushed the envelope so much. Designing
| products just to use the same language seems...to miss the
| point at the least.
|
| Nothing against Oliver's work, but for Braun to be a true
| design powerhouse again would take a clean slate, and I don't
| see how that can be done.
| jrmg wrote:
| I'd love to read an account of the 'fall' of Braun. Through my
| adult life, basically the only thing it makes that are still
| ubiquitous are electric shavers - which are great shavers, but
| hardly icons of design.
|
| Was there internal drama that led to this contraction in the
| diversity of what they made? Did it happen fast or slow? I feel
| like there must be a good story in there.
| farslan wrote:
| If you're interested Dieter Rams itself goes into it a little
| bit in the "Rams" documentary. But it all happened after
| Gillette acquired Braun in the 1970's.
| moritz wrote:
| Sold to Gilette in 1967, expansion into many different areas
| after. Then, I guess their story is not really unique, they
| shared the fate of all European household appliance
| manufacturers -- increasing competition from Asian companies,
| so by the 1990s, Braun was dead.
|
| After Procter & Gamble bought them in 2005, it now mostly
| exists as a brand to be licensed (everything other than shaving
| and electric toothbrushes).
| Reason077 wrote:
| And now days the toothbrushes use the "Oral-B" brand, so
| Braun is only really known (in international markets) for
| shavers.
| ghaff wrote:
| Pretty much what happened more broadly. Brands got sold off to
| companies making goods in Asia for lower prices. Consumers
| mostly not willing to pay 2x to 3xand it's often not even clear
| if the higher prices are worth the premium.
| seabass-labrax wrote:
| The Design Museum in Brussels[1] also has a sizeable collection
| of Dieter Rams and other Braun items. The theme of the permanent
| exhibition is polymers, so there's everything from little
| electronic devices to whole modular plastic storage units on
| display. I'd highly recommend it!
|
| [1]: https://designmuseum.brussels
| bch wrote:
| > The Design Museum in Brussels also has a sizeable collection
| of Dieter Rams and other Braun items.
|
| Museum Angewandte Kunst (Museum for Applied Art)[0] in
| Frankfurt, too.
|
| [0]
| https://www.museumangewandtekunst.de/de/besuch/ausstellungen...
|
| Edit: And in English -
| https://www.museumangewandtekunst.de/en/visit/exhibitions/pe...
| willcipriano wrote:
| That's peak design for me.
| Xenoamorphous wrote:
| I'm 44 and to this day I still use my very fist Braun electric
| shaver. I don't even know the model, but it looks just like one
| with a blue button in the pic in the article, although the case
| is different and the blue is darker in mine. The only issue it
| has is that I have to place the connector in a very specific
| position or it won't charge.
|
| I think it's going to outlive me.
| tcbawo wrote:
| I had a Braun shaver for a very long time -- long after the
| battery had died. It worked great while plugged into the wall,
| which was fine because I kept it in the bathroom next to an
| outlet. I switched to a new shaver after receiving one as a
| gift. I had no idea that modern shavers (maybe most electronics
| these days?) only run from the battery, rather than passing
| through from the wall. It's a reminder of a time before forced
| obsolescence that I miss.
| stadt wrote:
| If you love "everyday objects from the 20th century, especially
| electrical appliances" and are in Valencia, Spain, then checkout
| the Alfaro Hofmann Collection which has some lovely Braun pieces
| shown in the context of many other designs:
| https://www.alfarohofmann.com/en/holdings/s?filtered=1&fabri...
| throw0101d wrote:
| If anyone is curious about (industrial) design, it is worth
| checking out the documentary _Objectified_ by Gary Hustwit (and
| the rest of the 'trilogy'):
|
| * https://www.hustwit.com/objectified
|
| * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectified
|
| * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_Trilogy
|
| Trailer:
|
| * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dKJZfjHJJs
| itronitron wrote:
| It would be interesting if there was one major city that invested
| enough funds to organize thrift stores around particular design
| aesthetics or historic periods. So you could have a `50's thrift
| store, a `60's one, etc. Alternatively they could be organized
| around classes of goods such as clothing, household appliances,
| tools, etc.
|
| There is a lot of stuff out there but not enough incentive to
| bring it all together, refurbish, and reuse.
| zemvpferreira wrote:
| I started my career at Braun and have a huge soft spot for them.
| Hope to visit Kronberg again some day, maybe the fair would be a
| good excuse. Thank you highlighting it, was very enjoyable to
| read and go back memory lane.
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