KBB - August 2008 - (Page 58)

Profile A San Jose, CA, native and the son of an IBM engineer, Robert Brunner followed in his father’s footsteps until one fateful day in college when he— fueled by rebellion—discovered a display case in the art department ﬁlled with colorful models and hand renderings. It was at that exact moment that Brunner knew he wanted to “make stuff.” After graduating in industrial design from San Jose University, he worked for several Silicon Valley companies before founding Lunar Design and subsequently becoming the director of industrial design at Apple Computer. There, Brunner established the Industrial Design Group and developed such iconic products as the original Macintosh PowerBook, the Newton and the 20th Anniversary Mac. From there, after more than a decade at Pentagram—during which he also launched Fuego with Alex Siow, founder of Zephyr Ventilation— Brunner founded Ammunition, a product design, brand and interactive development consultancy. Brunner continues to create brand-deﬁning, award-winning designs and most recently teamed up with Zephyr to develop the Arc Collection, a line of high-end ventilation hoods. Q&A Robert Brunner, AMMUNITION Do you have a signature style? Personal design philosophy? I really like simple, beautiful, elegant design, but I also like to create things that have motion, interest and excitement in their form. I try to focus on simplicity and to create really interesting objects that people want to experience and covet. If someone had asked you when you were a child, “What do you want to be when you grow up,” you would have answered… If I’d actually known about industrial or product design, I might have said that. Otherwise, I’d probably say something like jet pilot or racecar driver. I did ﬂy when I was 16. I had my pilot’s license for sailplanes and wanted to be a pilot, but then I got more interested in girls. What learning experience has had the most impact on you? Professionally, it’s probably the time I spent at Apple. I learned a lot about the power of design and the effect it has on the brand of a company and the relationship with its customers. What’s the biggest misconception about what you do? Probably that it’s all about the concept. Most people look at design as sitting down and drawing a sketch and that’s it. But the reality is that you then spend 90 percent of your time ﬁguring it out, executing it, working out all the details, pushing it through the system and ﬁghting for it. What “words of wisdom” can/do you share with others? What I end up telling people a lot—especially other younger designers—is “Don’t give up.” People will always tell you a thousand reasons why it won’t work or why you can’t do that or why it’s too expensive. You just have to be incredibly focused and tenacious. It’s that 90 percent perspiration thing. Just focus and get it out the door. What are some issues that you’re passionate about? In terms of my work, I’ve become very concerned about the longevity of all the stuff we design and build. So much of it is created to be around for such a short period of time. This is a huge environmental problem. There’s no reason that products can’t be refreshed and rebuilt and made so people hold on to them twice as long. Do you derive any ideas from nature or other disciplines? I’m inspired by ﬁlm. When I watch a ﬁlm and start to break it down and think about how it was constructed and how the director pulled all the pieces together to tell the story, I ﬁnd it really inspiring because I think a lot of design is storytelling—you just do it in different ways. What is your favorite product? That’s a tough one to ask an industrial designer! Like a lot of men, I’m a car guy, and one of my favorite automobiles is the Aston Martin DB9. To me, it represents an amazing integration of elegance and power, which is a really hard thing to achieve. More recently, it’s the iPhone. It’s not so much the object but the functionality. The interface is so well done that I’m just constantly amazed by how well it works and how well thought out it is. As far as something that’s had an impact on my life in the last 10 years or so, it’s deﬁnitely that. People would be surprised to ﬁnd out that you…? That I sometimes watch really stupid reality shows on TV for relaxation. There’s something about the human element that I ﬁnd fascinating. I’ll sit there and watch it with the same interest you might have in a car wreck. I shouldn’t admit that, but I ﬁnd it strangely intriguing! s —Sallie Moffat For more of this interview, go to www.kbbonline.com/Brunner. 58 + K BB August 2008 / www.kbbonline.com / The Ofﬁcial Sponsor of K/BIS www.kbis.com July 2004 http://www.kbbonline.com/Brunner http://www.kbbonline.com http://www.kbis.com

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KBB - August 2008