New
About
(Est. 2019) Braun announces a long-awaited comeback to an esteemed category: audio. After nearly one hundred years of inspirational design across a range of sectors, Braun Audio (no official link) returns with a reinvention of the timeless LE speakers from 1959. London, UK-based Pure Audio is in charge of the products: “True to our heritage and focus on beautifully crafted products, we are responsible for the development and manufacture of Braun Audio, under license from Procter & Gamble, and are pivotal to ensuring this iconic brand once again takes its rightful place as the industry benchmark in premium audio.”
Design by
Precipice Design (London, UK)
Related links
Precipice Design project page
Braun Audio press release
Relevant quote
Precipice Design is proud to announce its work re-imagining of Braun’s 1959 iconic LE speaker range. Celebrating Braun Audio’s rich heritage, Precipice Design developed all consumer and trade touchpoints including brand and product narratives, packaging, photography, iconography, digital assets, video content and point of sale concepts, helping to re-establish Braun in the premium audio sector. Inspired by Dieter Rams’ original designs, the new Braun Audio LE Series of smart speakers encapsulate the perfect combination of minimalist form and next generation acoustic technology tuned to perfection and built to last.
The imagery leans on the rich heritage of Braun while simultaneously placing the revived speaker in a modern setting. Where the original 1950s speaker would prove to be large and cumbersome in today’s home environment Precipice’s imagery shows how the reimagined speakers fit discreetly into the home. The packaging concentrates on the purity of sound and the richness of the brand’s heritage with only the key information about the product shown on the packaging. The uncomplicated packaging is typical of Braun and reflects the aesthetics of the classic speaker through dark tones and a graphic of the speaker itself.
Precipice Design provided text
Images (opinion after)
Opinion
Yes, I’m a fan of Dieter Rams’ coolness. Yes, the Braun logo is great. Yes, this packaging is very nice and sophisticated and minimalist and all the good things we associate with the Dieter Rams and Braun brand. BUT this is so unexciting and expected. While that is mostly okay because it is all elegant and nice and looking its worth I feel like this could have been a great opportunity to breathe some new, contemporary ideas into the brand. I mean, Helvetica? (Although it’s most likely Neue Haas Grotesk.) This should be packaging for an alarm clock because I’m snoozing. (This is the probably the cattiest sentence I’ve written in years, sorry!, but that’s what Helvetica makes me do.) Overall, yeah, it’s fine, acceptable, and all competently executed but yawn.
