Radio Phonograph (model SK 4/10)
As head of design at Braun, the German consumer electronics manufacturer, Dieter Rams emerged as one of the most influential industrial designers of the latter half of the twentieth century. He helped to define an elegant and legible design language for Braun products that influenced subsequent generations of industrial designers, most notably Jonathan Ive, former lead designer for Apple, whose landmark design aesthetic for the iMac, iPhone, iPad and the Apple Watch channels the clean legibility and crisp functionality of Rams’s designs for Braun.
This combined radio-record player, known as the "Phonosuper," became synonymous with the post World War II boom in consumer electronics, leading to the age of compact, functional designs that were graphically and visually striking—from the Walkman and iPod to the Blackberry and the iPhone. The SK 4/10 Radio-Phonograph was known colloquially as "Snow White's Coffin" due to its white metal casing and transparent lid. The unit’s minimal detailing and elemental styling combines the sleek streamlining of Art Deco with the austere, almost clinical, aesthetics of laboratory and technological devices—and redefined the typology of domestic audio equipment for years to come.
This combined radio-record player, known as the "Phonosuper," became synonymous with the post World War II boom in consumer electronics, leading to the age of compact, functional designs that were graphically and visually striking—from the Walkman and iPod to the Blackberry and the iPhone. The SK 4/10 Radio-Phonograph was known colloquially as "Snow White's Coffin" due to its white metal casing and transparent lid. The unit’s minimal detailing and elemental styling combines the sleek streamlining of Art Deco with the austere, almost clinical, aesthetics of laboratory and technological devices—and redefined the typology of domestic audio equipment for years to come.
Artwork Details
- Title: Radio Phonograph (model SK 4/10)
- Designer: Dieter Rams (German, born Wiesbaden, 1932)
- Designer: Hans Gugelot (Swiss, born Makassar, Indonesia 1920–1965 Ulm, Germany)
- Manufacturer: Braun AG
- Date: 1956
- Medium: Painted metal, wood, plastic
- Dimensions: 9 1/2 × 23 × 11 1/2 in., 24.3 lb. (24.1 × 58.4 × 29.2 cm, 11 kg)
- Classification: Machines & Appliances
- Credit Line: Gift of P&G Braun Archive Kronberg, 2023
- Object Number: 2023.356a, b
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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