Dieter Rams (*1932)

Undoubtedly, one of the seminal figures in the history of postwar industrial design is Dieter Rams. With his whollistic design approach he not only shaped the image of German design but has continued to influence generations of designer with Jonathan Ive of Apple being his most prominent disciple. Dieter Rams's work for the German company Braun, nowadays a subsidiary of Gillette, has become classic due to its formal reduction, attention to detail, as well as its overall user-friendliness.
The book "Dieter Rams: As little design as possible", written by Sophie Lovell, is a massive, career-spanning overview of Rams's design process and principles, the products he designed, and in the end an oral history of industrial design after WWII. The approximately 400 pages are an interesting read and provide the reader with a detailed analysis of Dieter Rams's ethos and approach to design.
Luckily the book also includes a photo essay on Dieter Rams's self-designed Kronberg house, completed in 1971: although originally trained as an architect, the Kronberg house is the only architectural project of Dieter Rams and in its formal purity both out and inside a built manifesto of his design convictions. Furnished with his well-known designs for the company Vitsoe, the house exudes a sense of quiteness and ease that can also be found in houses designed by architect Richard Neutra.
To cut a long story short: the book as must-read for everyone with at least a slight sense for design.