How to be a stylish audiophile

From the packaging to the design of its products Scandanavian company AIAIAI makes any audiophile look good

As you might suspect we’re big fans of minimalism here at phaidon.com - after all, we publish books by this guy. Which is why we were intrigued by these headphones from relatively new Danish company AIAIAI. The designs themselves are simple and rather beautiful in their own right, with a clear focus on organic lines and on overall iconic shape. They also feature pleasingly to-the-point names such as Swirl, Pipe and Tracks - yet it was actually the packaging and its graphics around the elements of pause and play, that initially caught our eye.

Creative Director for the project was Muggie Ramadani Design Studio, an interdisclipinary studio specialising in what it calls creating intelligent solutions for both analogue and digital media.

AIAIAI headphones, packaging designed by Muggie Ramadani Design Studio

The company has previously branded and worked on the corporate identities for Embassy Schweiz, Copengagen’s airline terminal CPH Go, mobile tech company Yond and Swiss Chocolatier Max, winning numerous design awards along the way.

“I got approached last November,” Ramadani tells Phaidon. “The company had a desire to make the branding appear more clear than on the old packaging - my task was to do just that."

AIAIAI headphones, packaging designed by Muggie Ramadani Design Studio

"The logo existed but the old packaging was a bit messy," Ramdani continued. "The company is selling in the Apple store now so it needed something a little more modern. I was keen to make the branding clearer, fix the hierarchy and the way that you actually see the product. Instead of trying to communicate everything at the same level, I wanted to communicate certain aspects.”

Headquartered in Copenhagen and informed by a heritage of Scandinavian design, AIAIAI creates high quality, accessible audio products that deliver value far beyond the aesthetics for which it is gradually becoming famous. For its latest product, the Capital, the company called upon design company Kibisi. Launched this month it's made out of nylon reinforced with fibreglass with a lightweight rubber-brace designed to withstand heavy, everyday use in urban environments. After use the phones fold up for storage in the included carrying pouch. We think it looks a litle Dieter Rams influenced - which can only be a good thing.

Dieter Rams: As Little Design as PossibleSophie Lovell

Price AUD$135.00 Price CAD$135.00 Price £69.95 Price T105.00 Price USD$105.00

Dieter Rams is one of the most influential product designers of the twentieth century. Even if you don't immediately recognize his name, you have almost certainly used one of the radios, clocks, lighters, juicers, shelves or hundreds of other products he designed. He is famous not only for this vast array of well-formed products, but for his remarkably prescient ideas about the correct function of design in the messy, out-of-control world we inhabit today. These ideas are summed up in his 'ten principles' of good design: good design is innovative, useful, and aesthetic. Good design should be make a product easily understood. Good design is unobtrusive, honest, durable, thorough, and concerned with the environment. Most of all, good design is as little design as possible.

In that spirit, this monograph is as little book as possible. It is a clear, comprehensive and beautiful presentation of Dieter Rams' life and his work. It is a must-have book for anyone interested in Rams' work, his legacy, and his ideas about how to live.

Specifications:

Format: Hardback
Size: 270 × 205 mm (10 5/8 × 8 1/8 in)
Pages: 400 pp
Illustrations: 320 illustrations
ISBN: 9780714849188

Sophie Lovell was born in London. After graduating from the University of Sussex and Chelsea College of Art & Design, she moved to Berlin in 1994. She is a writer, curator and creative consultant as well as a long-term contributing editor and currently the Germany editor of the international lifestyle magazine Wallpaper*. She has written and edited several books on design and architecture including Limited Edition: Prototypes, One-Offs and Design Art Furniture and Furnish – Furniture and Interior Design for the 21st Century.

"Shines by painting a refreshingly realistic picture of the design process... The easiest way to describe Mr. Rams’s impact on design is to say that he made Braun the “Apple” — in other words the It-brand — of its time."—Alice Rawsthorn, International Herald Tribune

"While many of the books about Dieter Rams are predominantly dry catalogues, Lovell's book examines the relevance of his work from a contemporary design standpoint by featuring interviews with some of today's top industrial designers..."—Apphia Michael, Wallpaper.com

"As Little Design as Possible is well-structured, thorough and provides background context to the many facets of Rams’s career, and also considers the continuation of his Ten Principles of Good Design."—Thomas Phongsathorn, V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum magazine)

"The design bible from the greatest industrial designer of the 20th century." —Tomas Maier, Esquire