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Why you must support this documentary about design master Dieter Rams

Dieter Rams is widely regarded to be one of the greatest designers of the post-War period – his product designs for Braun even served as inspiration for the iPhone. Now, director Gary Hustwit plans to dedicate a feature documentary to the design legend, and is seeking assistance via crowdfunding...

To call Rams a ‘design god’ would not be an overstatement. As well as overseeing the creation of countless iconic objects during his 50-plus-year tenure as design director of Braun and Vitsoe, he also created the ‘10 principles of good design’ widely adopted as the industry’s ten commandments. Be that as it may, Rams is also a famously private person – so when a documentary director is allowed into his house and studio in Frankfurt to pick his brain over a period of several weeks, the resulting footage should be regarded as inspirational gold-dust that must be preserved at any cost.

As such, director Gary Hustwit – the name behind other through-provoking documentaries such as Helvetica and Objectified – is seeking help from Dieter disciples the world over, with the intent of raising the $200,000 required to turn the footage into a feature-length documentary. If successful, a portion of the money raised will also go towards preserving and digitising Rams’ personal archive, much of which has never before been seen by the public. The crowdfunding project follows the familiar Kickstarter model of offering various rewards depending on the amount pledged. 

For further information about the documentary and how you can help bring it to fruition, visit the project’s Kickstarter page.