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dieter rams. 10 design principles.

Home designconceptdieter rams. 10 design principles.

dieter rams. 10 design principles.

Nov 5, 2009 | concept, design, people |
dieter rams. 10 design principles.
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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

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resources:
vitsoe
designmuseum
gizmodo
victoria and albert museum
dieter rams flickr
braun flickr
37 signals
tendesignprinciples
new: a bit late

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Ron Kovach

about Ron Kovach

Ron Kovach is a designer, educator and blogger. He's a past president of both The Art Institute of Chicago's Architecture & Design Society and the AIGA Chicago Chapter as well as a past chairman, 27 Chicago Designers. He's an adjunct professor at Columbia College Chicago and co-founder / editor of DesignApplause and Chicago Design Archive. Contact Ron via Contact/Help on this site.

view all entries by Ron Kovach.

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