2.5 KiB
2.5 KiB
dieter-rams-braun — Dieter Rams / Braun
- School: Editorial / Minimalist
- Vibe: "Less but better", functional honesty, industrial restraint
- Best for: Hardware product pages, audio gear, industrial / tool brands, design-led B2B
- Touchstone: Braun T3 radio, Braun ET66 calculator, Rams's Ten Principles of Good Design
Palette
- Ground:
#E4E1DC(concrete light) or#F5F4F0(paper) - Ink:
#191919 - Industrial gray:
#A8A8A8,#5C5C5C - Accent: single signal — Braun orange
#E96A26or signal yellow#F5C518, used only on functional elements (a power dot, an active state)
Typography
- Display & body: a precision grotesk — Akzidenz-Grotesk, Helvetica Now, or Söhne. Weight 400 body, weight 500 for emphasis, never 700.
- Numerals love a monospaced variant for spec tables
Spacing: based on a 4px sub-grid; visible values 4 / 8 / 16 / 24 / 32 / 64 / 128. Functional, no "luxury whitespace" inflation.
Radius: 2–4px maximum. Sharp by default.
Shadow: none.
Motion: utilitarian — instant state changes (~80–120ms), no flourish.
Signature moves
- Diagrammatic exploded views of the product with measurement callouts (real or fictional)
- A single signal-orange dot on the page indicating "active" or "power" — never decorative
- Tabular spec listings as a first-class layout element (not hidden behind a "Specs" toggle)
- Every label exactly what it is, in plain language ("ON / OFF" not "Toggle interaction mode")
- The page itself feels like a piece of equipment
Avoid
- Photography that romanticizes the product — Braun shoots it on a grid background like an engineering specimen
- Multiple accent colors
- Curves anywhere — even hover effects shouldn't bounce
- Lifestyle imagery
AI prompt seed
Industrial product photograph, 1960s Braun design language, single hardware object on light gray #E4E1DC grid background, frontal orthographic view, dimensions and labels in thin sans serif, color palette restricted to gray / black / single orange marker, 4:3.
Don't use when
- The product is soft / emotional / lifestyle — Rams discipline reads as cold for skincare or hospitality
- The team wants warmth or personality — this recipe is impersonal by design
- The audience is consumer / non-technical — they may read it as "boring spec sheet"
Same school — Editorial / Minimalist:
apple-hig·muji-kenya-hara·aesop·monocle-magazine
Browse all 25 recipes: INDEX.md