Dieter Rams is quite literally a household name for many of us – though we might not have realised it. Since the 1950s domestic appliances that first came to life on his drawing board, and those of his design team, have been finding their way into our homes and our hands. From razors to record players, calculators to alarm clocks, the quality and functionality of Rams’ product designs for German manufacturer Braun set the standards by which all other modern products came to be measured.

Now 75, Rams’ legacy to our design vocabulary has been born out of a lifetime’s commitment to developing items that are easy to use and tempered by rigorous research, development and attention to detail. Equally important has been his single-mindedness in striving for simplicity and stripping down every product to the “essential”, whether it be a simple toothbrush or a hi-fi system, without, as he says, “removing the poetry”.