Robert Brunner (born 1958) is an American industrial designer. Brunner was the Director of Industrial Design for

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

from 1989 to 1996 and is a founder and current partner at Ammunition Design Group.

Biography

Brunner received a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Design from

San José State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

in 1981. After working as a designer and project manager at several high technology companies, Brunner went on to found

Lunar Design Founded in 1984 by Jeff Smith, Gerard Furbershaw and Robert Brunner, LUNAR (Lunar Design) is a product design and development consultancy headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. The company's provides industrial, interaction and communicati ...

in 1984, in 1989, Brunner accepted the position of Director of Industrial Design at

, where he provided design and direction for all Apple product lines, including the

PowerBook The PowerBook (known as Macintosh PowerBook before 1997) is a family of Macintosh laptop computers designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from 1991 to 2006. During its lifetime, the PowerBook went through several major revisions and ...

. He was succeeded by

Jonathan Ive Sir Jonathan Paul Ive (born 27 February 1967) is a British industrial and product designer, as well as businessman. Ive was the chief design officer (CDO) of Apple Inc. from 1997 until 2019 (known as senior vice principal of industrial des ...

in 1997. Brunner claims that while with Apple, he hired Ive three times. In January 1996, he became a partner in the San Francisco office of

Pentagram A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle aro ...

. In 2006, Brunner partnered Alex Siow, founder of San Francisco-based Zephyr Ventilation, to launch outdoor grill design firm Fuego. Emblematic of his relationship with Siow, he designed the Arc Collection of modern range-hoods for Zephyr Ventilation. By mid-2007 Brunner left Pentagram to start Ammunition Design Group. In 2008, former

MetaDesign Metadesign (or meta-design) is an emerging conceptual framework aimed at defining and creating social, economic and technical infrastructures in which new forms of collaborative design can take place. It consists of a series of practical design-r ...

leaders

Brett Wickens Brett Wickens (born April 15, 1961 in Hamilton, Ontario) is a British-Canadian creative director known for his work with identity design. He is a partner for the Ammunition Design Group, and is currently living and working in the San Francisc ...

and Matt Rolandson joined Ammunition LLC as partners. In 2008, Brunner collaborated with Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre to launch Beats by Dre, and is responsible for the design of the company's lines of headphones and speakers including Beats Studio, Powerbeats, Mixr, Solo and Solo Pro as well as the Pill wireless speaker, among others. Brunner's work has been widely published in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. His product designs have won 23 IDSA Awards from the

Industrial Designers Society of America The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) is a membership-based not-for-profit organization that promotes the practice and education of industrial design. The organization was formally established in 1965 by the collaborative merger of ...

and

Business Week ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

, including 6 best of category awards. His work is included in the permanent collections of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...

(MoMA),

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum housed within the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile (New York City), Museum Mile. It is one of 19 museums that fall under the ...

, Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA).

References

External links

Robert Brunner collection
at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
Robert Brunner collection
at the

Cooper Hewitt Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum housed within the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile. It is one of 19 museums that fall under the wing of the Smithsonian Inst ...

Living people Apple Inc. employees Computer designers American industrial designers 1958 births Pentagram partners (past and present) {{US-compu-bio-stub

Biography

See also

References

External links