Dieter rams. 10 design principles.
good design is as little design as possible
Dieter Rams (born May 20, 1932 in Wiesbaden) is a German industrial designer closely associated with the consumer products company Braun and the Functionalist school of industrial design.
In 1993 I asked Dieter to speak to the Architecture & Design Society at the Art Institute of Chicago. The society recently had a name change: “design” had been added. We joked ( ahem ) at the time that the real estate economy was so bad that the Architecture Society needed new members. We needed a credible and passionate design icon to speak to this group. Dieter became the first designer to speak under the society’s new name.
What I remember that night and again recently while watching the Objectified movie was Dieter’s 10 design principles. Honestly, I can’t tell you for sure that these are the same principles. Hoping Dieter will set the story straight.
I think I like the earlier stuff better. Maybe it was the materials or maybe it was so different than the pack at the time. The first Braun product I remember making a design connect to me was an electric razor. Much of Dieter’s work has long seemed more connected to brutalism than minimalism. Let’s say beautifully, brutally, minimal.
* Good design is innovative
* Good design makes a product useful
* Good design is aesthetic
* Good design helps us to understand a product
* Good design is unobtrusive
* Good design is honest
* Good design is durable
* Good design is consequent to the last detail
* Good design is concerned with the environment
* Good design is as little design as possible
resources:
vitsoe
designmuseum
gizmodo
victoria and albert museum
dieter rams flickr
braun flickr
37 signals
tendesignprinciples
new: a bit late
Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts
19 comments ↓
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by DesignApplause, Catalin David. Catalin David said: RT good design is as little design as possible http://bit.ly/1pu1F9 via @DesignApplause [...]
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by DesignApplause: Dieter rams. 10 design principles.: good design is as little design as possible http://bit.ly/1pu1F9...
Excellent.
Also, your Social Comments & Analytics links use horizontal ellipses which break the links. See above. Thought you should know.
[...] Rams’ 10 design principles. Follow them and you, too, can make spare white [...]
[...] was recently reminded of these. It’s good to always keep them in [...]
i found another dieter rams story you might enjoy. you will find the link below the photos under “resources” labeled “new: a bit late”
[...] funny, true and correct. And because it reinforces what I've thought for a long time and what Dietar Rams said once, "Good design is as little design as [...]
nice post. thanks.
Good design is Aesthetic?
That must be a translation error. Aesthetic is an adjective.
[...] Dieter Rams and his work at Braun. Design Applause blog has a nice collection of the man’s work here. And a side by side comparision from Gizmodo of the work Rams did in the 60s and what Apple is [...]
That guy talks utter sense.
This comment was originally posted on Noisy Decent Graphics
Yep, read the article and watched his talk. Michael Bierut always has something insightful to say.
This comment was originally posted on Noisy Decent Graphics
Diet Rams 10 design principles. innovative, useful, aesthetic, help us to understand a product, unobtrusive… http://icio.us/wrxxlc
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Good points all around. I can especially identify with the issue of appearing you are "shirking" when in reality it takes a lot more skill to create a simple and accurate solution than it does to come up with confusing and convoluted fluff.
Nice article.
This comment was originally posted on Noisy Decent Graphics
I’ve always felt that Rams’ maxim isn’t quite correct, it puts emphasis in the wrong place.
It shouldn’t be "as little as possible", it should be "as much as is necessary".
i.e. you keep going until it’s right. You don’t wait for it to be finished.
no disrespect to Mr. Rams of course, i hold is work in very high regard.
This comment was originally posted on Noisy Decent Graphics
Less is more? or Less is a bore? Dieter rams 10 design principles. http://bit.ly/49462b do other designers follow principles like these?…
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Dieter Rams’ 10 Design Principles: http://designapplause.com/2009/dieter-rams-10-design-principles/6791/ super like!
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Less is More, especially in design http://bit.ly/49462b
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
RT @gluehq: Less is More, especially in design http://bit.ly/49462b
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Leave a Comment
Alas, yes we moderate comments. Please proceed to add value.