BRAUN--Fifty Years of Design and Innovation Hardcover – March 16, 2010

I have used many Braun products over the years, the products always felt well made and seemed to last a long time. I was never interested in the design history of commercial products until I saw a picture of the HL70 Desk fan designed by Reinhold Weiss/Jurgen Greubel. I owned one of these little desk fans when I was in college and at the time I couldn't afford air conditioning. Most other students had these huge room fans but my little HL70 seemed to produce a steady stream of air without taking up space. The little fan became one of the most useful devices all through my college days. I lost track of my little fan somewhere along the line and when I saw the HL70 pictured and the "Braun fifty years of design and Innovation " mentioned as the reference to the fan, I ordered a copy and found myself more than absorbed with the Braun designs. I hadn't realized how many products I was familiar with and had contact with within my own lifetime. I did not know who Dieter Rams was or about the design team at Braun. As an Art student, I was familiar with the Bauhaus but until this book I did not understand the connection between Bauhaus design and Braun products. Since the purchase of this wonderful book I have acquired several of those well designed items. For instance the KMM 30 Cafe select coffee/ expresso grinder designed by Ludwig Littman/Jurgen Greubel manufactured in 1994 may be the best electric coffee grinder ever made and it looks great on our kitchen counter top. I do not care that I have a coffee grinder that is 15 years old because it does what a coffee grinder is supposed to do and does it better than the modern ones on the market. I enjoyed the way the book shows the progression of product design. The pictures of the products are outstanding. Since the purchase of this great book, I have gone on further to research the designs of Dieter Rams and Dietrich Lubs and would also recommend "Less and More the Design ethos of Dieter Rams" for those that wish to delve deeper into the subject. Rams led the design team at Braun for the critical years and his influence and concepts made many of the great designs possible. These books both get five stars and are highly recommended for those interested in German design of products for the home.

Dating back to the '60 I have owned many of their products. For the most part they were cutting edge and innovative and expensive. In 1972 I bought the KF 21 coffee maker for $75.00 - that is about $420.00 in today money. It is a real beauty and I use it on special occasions. It is a work of art and brewed the coffee structurally.In the latter part of the eighties they went for quantity in the marketplace and seemed to forget what made them so special and thus we have so little from them today.This book is stunningly beautiful. Very high quality printing. There is very little of their products around in the US besides shavers.

I have an earlier edition of this wonderful book with German text, so I was thrilled when this English-language edition appeared on Amazon. It is a small square book, but very thick. Visual presentation is stunning with many, many Braun objects shown in clear color photographs. Interesting sections at the beginning of each chapter (shavers, clocks, Oral-B toothbrushes, etc.) give some background and historical reference. Collectors will also enjoy the product indexes. This book isn't inexpensive, but if you enjoy Braun design, it is money very well spent.

Wrote a glowing review and couldn't publish it. No clear button. Couldn't find a way to contact Amazon. Guys, get it together.Book is a design object itself. Beautifully sized, organized, photographed, designed, produced. Lives up to its subject. Amazon -- take a cue!

good

Good book

Authoritative pictorial analysis of Braun design. Beautifully designed. Superb organization. Extensive, definitive photos.Incomparable resource for Braun collectors.

I recently reviewed the excellent 808 page  Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams  book about Braun. It will probably be considered the definitive title about the company with a thorough analysis of the products and in particular the role of designer Rams. It had one annoying fault though: the photo pages used profile product shots that were really too small and made worse because they had a page to themselves facing a left-hand page with a head-on photo of the product.Bernd Polster's book is essentially a visual catalogue of Braun products with a photo of each (and it would really have looked stunning if it had used, at a proper size, the profile shots from the 'Less and more' book). The product lines are divided into eight chapters: Entertainment electronics; Photography and film; Clocks and pocket calculators; Lighters and flashlights; Electric shavers; Body care; Oral care; Household appliances. Each of these starts with an introduction and picks out milestone products for a detailed overview followed by photos and brief captions which visually trace the history of the line. The photos are straightforward shots, beautifully taken and used as cutouts on the page with a hint of a shadow to give them all a dimensional look. The Braun approach to design shines out from every page.The first seventy pages cover the history of the company using text and photos and the back of the book has a comprehensive listing of every product with page numbers where an item has a photo. This is a beautifully designed book (with the photos printed in a 250 screen on a matt art paper) which celebrates the Braun product design philosophy.***LOOK AT SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

While certainly not cheap, this book offers a brief descirption and wonderful photographs of the iconic Braun designs. A real feast for your eyes.

I would give five stars to the book. My only regret is the absence of the early Max Braun products, while the toothbrush pages go on and on…

Cheap&Quick

El formato del libro es pequeño pero cumple de sobra. Profusamente ilustrado, buena calidad de papel y textos formativos. Si te gusta el diseño en especial el de la marca Braun con Dieter Rams a la cabeza te encantará y entenderás de donde se copió el estilo Apple