| |
|
| |
Interview - with Rainer Silbernagel Director New Product- and Project-Engineering bei Braun |
| |
BraunPrize-team: Mr. Silbernagel, you are the Director New Product and Project Engineering at Braun. What do you see as being your objectives and responsibilities in this position?
For one thing, I'm responsible for technical planning of production for all Braun products worldwide. As part of this I have a role in decisions over global strategy for product planning and plant sitings. This involves taking into consideration not only global but also local market conditions and especially technical and economic issues. It's also one of my stated objectives to achieve high technical and aesthetic standards for all our products, and this is a design issue first and foremost.
|
| |
What do you understand to be the link between design and technology?
Technology must attempt to support all aspects of the design, i.e. the language of the product. Aesthetic quality is expressed not only in the shape of a product but also in its sound, e.g. the "click" of the switch, the feel of the surface, the "vibration" of the product, as well as the smell. And I am firmly convinced that the fascination of Braun products is a result of consistently putting these objectives into practice.
Designers and technicians as well as product managers have been working closely together as equals in project teams at Braun for several decades. Different kinds of people come together in these teams, all shaped by their own professional outlook. There are the sensitive designers with a feel for shape, colour and attention to detail; the rational, technically and economically oriented technicians, with their high safety standards, and the extrovert, decisive salespeople. They all have the one goal, namely to develop the right products for people and their needs. Intelligent and aesthetically pleasing products that lighten our everyday load, that are attractive and likeable.
Technicians and designers work out intelligent and innovative principles of construction, and these play a crucial role in the design of the products. For example, the Braun handmixer was completely redesigned in terms of the motor and gear arrangement in order to achieve a more efficient working capacity, and this also brought about greater flexibility in the design. And together they are working on new surface structures that have both functional and aesthetic qualities. This is how the hard-soft technology so important for Braun today was developed in the 1970s.
|
|
|
|
/home/BraunPrize Overview/
Interview/
Interview/
