HANS GUGELOT is considered the pioneer of system design. Already in 1950, he had developed the modular furniture system M 125 which made history in the following years. In 1954, Max Bill appointed him lecturer at the newly founded University of Design in Ulm. Shortly after, he began his work for the company Braun. Inter alia, the first audio-system-combination (the revolutionary SK 4, also nick-named Snow White) and the Braun Sixtant (the black/silver colour combination of which coined the company’s appearance) came to light. The Kodak Carousel, the Hamburg elevated railway and countless other projects, e.g. for Agfa-Gevaert, BAYER/BMW, Bofinger, Krupp, Lumoprint, Pfaff, Telefunken, Viessmann, Weishaupt achieved fame worldwide.

Within approx. 15 years, Gugelot created an essential work and opened up the door for system design. With Gugelot, the disciplines design and engineering melted into an intimate union. Without his profound knowledge in both areas, his creations would never be imaginable. „Like Charles Eames, Gugelot was an engineer-designer. He had a weakness for technology and orginally wanted to become a constructor”, wrote Otl Aicher in „Die Welt als Entwurf“ [“The world as a design”]. Hans Gugelot died in 1965 at the age of 45 as a result of a heart attack. The magazine „form“ wrote in 1974: „For the second time, Ulm experiences the rise and fall of a design institution: two years after the final end of the significant European University for Design, the once largest European agency for design which temporarily had 72 employees now closed its doors – the Gugelot Design GmbH.“

He is called the Leonardo da Vinci of the 20th century. Richard Buckminster Fuller was one of the first to consider natural processes as a consistent, systemic effect under economic principles (material and energy efficiency). “I do not want to imitate nature, but want to understand its principles”. In his book “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth”, he campaigned for global and integrated perspectives at an early point in time. However, his solutions often are surprisingly simple. Among many other things, Fuller applied himself to the systematic examination of spatial support structures with which the greatest possible space could be spanned quickly, cheaply and with the smallest possible surface. He thus developed the geodetic domes based on regular polyhedrals. These are a further development of the most simple, basic geometric bodies, are extremely stable and can be realized with the least material expenditure.

His basic technical principle – to achieve the greatest benefit with the smallest possible energy and material consumption – can be felt throughout all of his lifework. Many of his remarks such as “Don’t fight forces – use them” have meanwhile become dictums. Fuller, who considered himself “a comprehensive, anticipatory design scientist”, as a synthesis between artist, inventor, mechanic, economist and evolutionary strategist, evades any categorization and was ahead of his time in many aspects. He is considered an important catalyst for modern architecture and thought leader of the eco-movement. Buckminster Fuller – a pragmatic optimist who was esteemed both by the Pentagon and the flower people.

Dieter Rams was born in 1932 in Wiesbaden and, after World War II, studied architecture and interior design at the Werkkunstschule Wiesbaden until 1953, interrupted by a carpentry apprenticeship. From 1955 on, Rams worked for the electrical appliance manufacturer Braun, first as an architect and interior designer. From 1961 to 1995, he directed Braun’s legendary design department. His designs, mostly created in cooperation with Fritz Eichler, Reinhold Weiss, Gerd Müller, Roland Ullmann, Robert Oberheimer, Jürgen Greubel, Dietrich Lubs and others made the so far only regionally known brand Braun renowned worldwide. Especially close and intense was the contact with Hans Gugelot who – as did Rams – considered design an improvement, far away from any discussion about trends and beauty. “In the media, design is more and more seen as a matter of “making something more beautiful”, but I hate this expression. We have never had the intention to make something more beautiful – we want to make things better, so what we need is something less, but better”, said Rams.

Already in the 70s, Rams summarized his philosophy of “less, but better” in 10 theses on design; these theses have coined generations of designers, both on a national and international level. Jonathan Ive, British designer and responsible for all Apple products in the 90s, named Dieter Rams his most coining influence and source of inspiration. This also became visible on the occasion of the launch of the first Apple iPod which looked amazingly similar to the Braun radio T3 from 1958. “Good design is innovative. Good design makes a product useable. Good design is aesthetic. Good design makes a product understandable. Good design is discreet. Good design is honest. Good design is durable. Good design is consequent down to the last detail. Good design is eco-friendly. Good design is as little design as possible.” And Rams says: “Back to the simple, back to the pure – less, but better.”

Prof. Helmut Staubach – he coined and sharpened our personality as designers like no one else. He estimated our “engineering background” with a view for the concrete technical detail and taught us how to think in generalist terms: to keep an overview of the “big picture”.

“Whereas radicalism and un-conditionality belong to the privileges of art, social and thus functional parameters are always constitutive for design. Without the reflection of extra-aesthetical processes, design work will only create insignificance on the long term. Will become an end in itself if changes of communicative acting and work organization, differentiation in social structures and fields of activities find their equivalents in creative relations only. To relate social changes and design to each other in a productive way means: to enter into a discursive-reflexive process for which form – as Mies von der Rohe once called for – is always the result, but never the aim.”

Dyson was born in 1947 in Norfolk, Great Britain. He studied furniture and interior design at the Royal College of Arts before he turned towards engineering. The vacuum cleaner without cleaner bag, the quickest hygienic hand dryer or the ventilator without rotor wings – these are the products that have made Dyson renowned worldwide. However, these were not his first inventions. 

His first product idea, completely invented on his own, was the Ballbarrow. By means of a voluminous ball instead of a wheel, barrows were supposed not to sink in as deeply as conventional wheels did on soft underground. In contrast to tubular tires, the ball did without compressed air, thus excluding the danger of flats. Due to rotational molding, the ball was hollow and could be produced at low prices. However, Dyson was lacking the necessary capital in order to realize his product. He convinced his brother-in-law Stuart Kirkwood to invest into his business idea and thus Kirk- Dyson Ltd. brought the Ballbarrow onto the British market in 1974. In 1977, they already sold 65.000 pieces per year, corresponding to a market share of approximately 77% in the United Kingdom. But it should not become a success story. After failed license agreement negotiations with the American firm Glassco Plastics Company, Glassco fabricated the Ballbarrow without further ado – and without paying royalties for it. Kirk-Dyson subsequently initiated a patent dispute in the US against Glassco. This was long, very expensive and finally decided to the benefit of Glassco.

In the meantime, Dyson had the idea of designing the Dual Cyclone – a bag-free vacuum cleaner making use of centrifugal force. He presented his idea to his board colleagues but did not meet their interest. For them, entering a new market segment was too risky. At that point of time, Dyson realized that his time with Kirk-Dyson was coming to an end. 

Dyson was 31 years of age when he tore off the cleaner bag from his old Hoover and replaced it by a cyclone made of cornflakes cardboard boxes. The first, fully functional and visually completed Dyson Dual Cyclone was finished when Dyson was 45 years old already. In between, his debts amounted to more than GBP 1.500.000. But in the end, his persistence paid off. Dyson pursued a remarkable career as inventor, designer, engineer and entrepreneur. Apart from form and design, his primary motivation is innovation. “Within the past 25 years, Dyson Gyro Gearloose registered 850 patents for 120 different innovations…”. Dyson takes up daily grievances and problems and tries to solve them in a technological way. Sir Dyson is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our times.