DIETER RAMS

“My goal is to omit everything superfluous so that the essential is shown to best possible advantage.” – Dieter Rams,1980

•

German industrial designer

•Born on May 20, 1932 in Weisbaden, Hesse

•one of the most influential designers of the 20th century.

•His name has been strongly associated with the consumer products company Braun for which he had been working for over 40 years, and the Functionalist school of industrial design.

•Rams studied architecture at the Werkkunstschule Wiesbaden as well as learning carpentry from 1943 to 1957.

•After working for the architect Otto Apel between 1953 and 1955, he joined the electronic devices manufacturer Braun where he became chief of design in 1961, a position he kept until 1995.

•Rams introduced the idea of sustainable development in design in the 1970s but was acutely aware that the output of Braun and Vitsœ was potentially contributing to the problem.

•Back in the early 1980s, Dieter Rams was becoming increasingly concerned by the state of the world around him – “an impenetrable confusion of forms, colours and noises.” Aware that he was a significant contributor to that world, he asked himself an important question: is my design good ?

GOOD DESIGN

1.is innovative

2.makes a product useful

3.is aesthetic

4.makes a product understandable

5.is unobtrusive

6.is honest

7.is long-lasting

8.is thorough down to the last detail

9.is environmentally friendly

10.is as little design as possible

Good design is innovative

The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development
is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative
design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.

Good design makes a product useful A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic.

Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.

Good design is aesthetic

The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products we use every day affect our person and our well-being. But only well- executed objects can be beautiful.

Good design makes a product understandable It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product talk. At best, it is self-explanatory.

Good design is unobtrusive

Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.

Good design is honest

It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.

Good design is long-lasting

It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today’s throwaway society.

Good design is thorough, down to the last detail

Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.

Good design is environmentally-friendly

Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimises physical and visual pollution
throughout the lifecycle
of the product.

Good design is as little design as possible

Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials.

• Back to purity, back to simplicity.

Rams’ Legacy

• Many of his designs have found a permanent home at many museums over the world, including MoMA in New York.

• Recently Rams' work has been reprised in the context of its influence on Jonathan Ive of Apple Inc. In the documentary film Objectified, Rams states that Apple is the only company designing products according to his principles.

LESS AND MORE is the design ethos of diether rams.

•Gestalten Books compiled Less and More a book which features images of hundreds of Rams’s products, his sketches and models while it elucidates his design philosophy.

Less and More shows us the possibilities that design opens for both the manufacturer and the consumer as a means of making our lives better through attractive, functional solutions that also save resources.

EXAMPLES OF RAM'S WORK

606 Universal Shelving System Design

•a classic shelving system made by a 28-year-old Dieter Rams back in 1960

•50 years of continuous production by Vitsœ.