Partner Content: How do you make industrial design sexy?

 

Braun is a victim of its own success. Having carved out a place in industrial design history, a lot of today's product designs pumped out by multiple brands owe a huge debt of gratitude to Braun. That was its problem – having once been distinctive, it had become generic. Just another shaver brand.

 

So last year, UK creative agency Grey London and the iconic German company put their heads together and came up with an across-the-board creative solution that echoed the words of legendary Braun designer Dieter Rams: "Good design is as little design as possible."

 

Using geometric graphical elements from its 60-year past, Grey London came up with a "design vocabulary" that distinguished it from its rivals. So well received was this new design ethos, it is now being used wherever Braun interacts directly with consumers across multiple touchpoints, whether in its advertising, in stores where Braun products are on sale, on its product packaging and even in its internal communications.

 

As a result, Braun rediscovered its mojo and reinvigorated its brand. And it’s a rethink that appears to be having a  global financial impact, with Braun growing its sales in 2017 by 5% to €6.8bn ($7.9bn).