✨$T 0187: The Future is Artificial

This past week, the biggest tech story of the year dropped: OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, announced a $6.5 billion deal to acquire “io” the hardware design firm founded by Jony Ive—the creative force behind Apple’s most iconic products. The goal? To have Ive and his team do for Artificial Intelligence what they once did for the smartphone: give it a physical form that changes everything.

Behind Ive’s legacy at Apple was a quiet, powerful influence—Dieter Rams, the legendary German designer behind Braun’s minimalist masterpieces. Rams championed simplicity, clarity, and function-led design, values that shaped everything from the iPod to the iPhone. Jony often spoke about Rams as a guiding light, once saying, “At a glance, you knew exactly what it was and exactly how to use it.” That clarity is Apple’s ethos in a sentence—and echoes Steve Jobs’ own belief that “you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end, because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

But it goes beyond that. For many of the products Ive shipped at Apple, you’ll find a near direct one-to-one design match to some of Rams most popular (and sometimes lesser known) mid-century consumer products. To us, it’s further proof that time is truly a flat circle, and everything comes back around. 

Rally has always been a place where Apple nostalgia and the earliest examples of Apple products have generated huge interest from our community. So in this week’s edition of Shiny Thing$, we’re taking a look at some of the most notable Apple designs from that came from the pencil of Jony Ive, but truly originated years before in the mind of Dieter Rams.

1: iPod (2001) → Braun T3 Pocket Radio (1958)

This is the easy and most obvious one, so we’ll start here... The iPod’s iconic white plastic front, click wheel, and screen layout strongly echo the Braun T3 transistor radio. Both devices feature a grid-like rationality, circular controls, and a minimalist monochrome front face.

The Back Story
Rams' emphasis on “as little design as possible” is evident in the iPod’s simplicity-over-everything. Ive embraced the idea that form should follow function—resulting in a design that felt inevitable, not ornamental.

2: iMac G4 (2002) → Braun LE1 Speaker (1959)

The iMac G4’s floating LCD screen on a stainless-steel arm resembles the Braun LE1 electrostatic speaker’s clean panel-on-a-stand form. Both reduce complexity and express structure.

The Back Story
This design move separated the logic board and display, allowing function to dictate form—a Rams-like approach. Ive’s admiration for visible structure and tension is a nod to Rams’ industrial clarity.

03: iPhone 4 (2010) → Braun ET66 Calculator (1987)

The iPhone 4’s grid-based icon layout, circular buttons on screen, and balanced form factor share DNA with the ET66 calculator, co-designed by Rams. Apple even mirrored the calculator’s look in their iOS calculator app.

The Back Story
This is both aesthetic and philosophical mimicry—where clarity and usability dominate the user experience. Ive translated Rams’ physical calculator logic into the digital and intangible realm.

04: Apple Remote (2005) → Braun TV Remote Control (1970s)

Apple’s original white remote bears a striking resemblance to Braun’s remote with its stark white face, minimal button layout, and intuitive control.

The Back Story
Rams believed good design is unobtrusive and understandable. The Apple remote’s design reflects those ideals—delivering control without visual or tactile clutter.

05: PowerMac G5 / Mac Pro (2003/2006) → Braun Atelier Hi-Fi Components (1960s)

The PowerMac G5 and early Mac Pro’s aluminum casing with perforated ventilation holes is reminiscent of Braun’s stereo equipment, particularly the Atelier series, known for similar grille patterns and precision-machined enclosures.

The Back Story
Both Apple and Braun's machines use perforation not just as utility but as visual order—engineering as ornament. Ive’s Mac designs celebrate material and craft in the same way Rams did with brushed metals and grid logic.

As Rams once said, Rams once said, “Good design is as little design as possible.” Soon, we’ll see how that translates in an Artificial future.

Until next week…