The Braun T3 pocket radio is credited by MoMA to Dieter Rams and the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm, Germany. The museum dates the model to 1958 and identifies Braun AG of Frankfurt as its manufacturer. Its plastic casing brings the language of postwar industrial design to a small personal object.
The front is organized around two contrasting elements: a field of small speaker openings and a large circular tuning control. Against the pale rectangular body, these features establish a simple visual order. The radio’s function can be read through the arrangement of its surface.
MoMA records dimensions of 8.3 by 15.2 by 4.1 centimetres. This compact scale distinguishes it from the larger radio-phonographs that also occupied Braun’s design programme. The T3 can be considered alongside the SK 4 as an example of related design ideas applied to different listening situations.
Regency TR-1 transistor radio
