Description:

Select a visual artist, photographer, illustrator, or designer who has made a cultural impact in history, even if it is someone contemporary.

Research their life with regard to education and background in relation to their work.

Dieter Rams

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Biography

Dieter Rams is an industrial designer from Germany who created the foundation for minimalist design. He first started working as an architect in his early career but quickly transitioned into a more tech and design field shortly after. Once making the career change, Rams worked for the Braus company, where he became an influential leader in his product design team. This is where he created his most popular designs such as record player, furniture, and storage systems. Throughout the years of creating and designing, Rams noticed the reaction he got to his most simple creation over the more intricate ones. From this, he came up with a theory that people cared more about the functionality of objects over its aesthetics. With Rams being a previous architect he understood the need for functionality however, he wanted to create things that were aesthetically pleasing as well. Rams created the “10 principles of good design” which are 10 rules of how good design can impact the products we make. He was a pioneer of taking away from designs to make a design that had menial aspects to it. I often attribute creating and taking away as much as possible to the views that Rams popularized within the artistic community. Although Rams created mainly furniture, radios, record players ect.. his theory can be applied to assets such as posters, billboards, or package designing.

 

10 Principles of Design

Rams created the 10 principles of Good Design which was a guide for artists who wanted to understand his process of simplicity. According to Vitose, a furniture company, rams continue his legacy within their company and uses his principles of design while creating products. In their article The Power of Good Design, Rams principles are listed as:

 

• Good design is innovative

• Good design makes a product useful

• Good design is aesthetic

• Good design makes a product understandable

• Good design is unobtrusive

• Good design is honest

• Good design is long-lasting

• Good design is thorough down to the last detail

• Good design is environmentally-friendly

• Good design is as little design as possible

 

 

His Influence

As previously stated, Rams was a former architect who transitioned into the product design field later in his career. Product design often gets overlooked for the role it plays in our daily lives. Our TVs, computers, radios, chairs, desks, fans and phones are all results of ideas created by product designers. As a communication design student, being able to see the different fields of design opens my understanding that everything we interact with daily are all designs. Product design is a fascinating discipline that doesn’t only deal with one field but ranges throughout multiple fields including medical products, clothing products or even home appliances. Rams was a big advocate for good functional design and stressed the importance of simplicity in product design. What is so influential about Dieter Rams and his designs are how minimal they were while also being functional. He focuses on future-proof products and embodies the motto of “less is more”. Learning product design as a student can often be challenging as we think the more intricate a design is the better. This theory however is often what artists have to unlearn.

 

The first product I studied from Dieter Ram was the Braun PC Idle Turn Table created in 1960.

What is interesting about Rams work is that there isn’t much to look at. In my opinion this is a good thing because the consumer doesn’t have to think too much about how the product works. Pertaining to product design it is better to have a product that is straightforward rather than having a product that has too many features. Braun PC Idle Turn Table shows how having a straightforward design is useful. To someone that isn’t familiar with turntables, Rams design creates an experience that is both easy to learn and use the turntable. Other aspects he took into consideration was color choice. Many of his products were neutral with a pop of color. His color palette influenced my design style in which I don’t look for too much color but rather neutral colors with a highlight color. This theory of being simplistic leads to products that are “future-proof” and can be used years and years down the line without going out of style. According to an article from The New Yorker, “Rams is still living with products that he designed or purchased in the nineteen-sixties, whereas we are forced to upgrade our buttonless rectangles every few years.” Through this theory he created timelessness that every artist aspires to achieve.

 

Resources

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Learn more about the 10 Principles of Design https://www.vitsoe.com/us/about/good-design

More about Rams and his Career
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/what-weve-learned-from-dieter-rams-and-what-weve-ignored