Love gadgets and retro design? You’ve got to love Dieter Rams. As Braun’s head designer from 1955 to 1955, Rams created some of the coolest looking radios and other electronics, which are currently being exhibited at the London Design Museum.

Dieter Rams emerged as one of the most influential industrial designers of the late 20th century by defining an elegant, legible, yet rigorous visual language for its products.

Transparent plastics, wooden veneers, minimal white and grey tones with the odd red button depict Rams’ Bauhaus style, all honouring his ten principles of “good design”:

Good design is innovative.
Good design makes a product useful.
Good design is aesthetic.
Good design makes a product understandable.
Good design is unobtrusive.
Good design is honest.
Good design is long-lasting.
Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
Good design is environmentally friendly.
Good design is as little design as possible.
(Copyright Dieter Rams, amended March 2003 and October 2009.)

‘Less and More – The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams’, which also showcases Rams’ retro furniture for Vitsoe, is at The Design Museum until March 7th 2010.