Design is everywhere — it’s an irreducible aspect of life.

This magazine was designed, painstakingly; the laptop, desktop, or mobile phone that is within arm’s reach of you at this very moment, was designed not just to look pretty, but also to be functional, innovative, and aesthetically pleasing.

Do you remember what mobile phones looked like before the iPhone came along? By comparison with today, they were just ghastly, right? The flip screen, maze-like menus and more buttons than your local tailor. On top of that, they didn’t do a whole lot. Then along came Apple’s iPhone, with its touchscreen and single button (italicize single button), and everybody lost their shit.

Much of the world credits Steve Jobs for designing the iPhone, but do you know who influenced Jobs?

Meet Dieter Rams.

In a career that spans a half century, Dieter Rams has left an indelible mark on product design and the world with his iconic work. His design philosophy, Less Is More, was the inspiration behind Apple’s elegant design philosophy. Both Jobs and Jony Ive, the company’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, famously admired his work.

Rams is, without a doubt, one of the most important designers of the last century.

Rams worked at Braun for almost 40 years and still does his drawings by hand, did more than anyone else to popularize functional, modern mass produced design.

Millions of Braun’s distinctive alarm clocks, Oral-B toothbrushes, Gillette safety razors, hair dryers, coffee makers, food processors, electric shavers, irons, slide projectors, cine cameras, flashguns, and cigarette lighters are sold around the world. Ram’s genius has most likely played a part in your life in some way.

Ram’s “Ten Principles of Good Design,” a classic of design history and inspiration, lays it out: Products should be functional, innovative, aesthetically pleasing, and thorough down to the last detail.

The intensely-private Rams now finds himself the subject of “Rams,” a documentary directed by “Helvetica”’s Gary Hustwit.

There’s this aura around Dieter of, you know, very iron-willed, dictatorial. Then you meet him [and] he’s the opposite…[but] he’s an 84-year-old German man so he’s still a bit cantankerous.

Photos: Getty Images/Margarita Kazanovich