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Dieter Rams Design Influence

Dieter rams is a German industrial designer who trained and worked as an architect for a very long time until he joined the electronic devices manufacture Braun. After just a few years he became the chief designer a position in which he held for over 35 years. During his time, he designed a lot of iconic devices ranging from record players to furniture to storage systems.

He is also accredited with the memorable phrase “weniger aber besser” which translates to less but better. He is known to use graphic designs, form, proportion and materiality to create order within his designs. He never lets his work to be the center of attention instead he lets his work become part of the environment through precision and order.

Life

Dieter Rams is closely associated with the consumer products company Braun and the functionalist school of industrial design. He was born in Wiesbaden Germany in 1932. He was influenced strongly by the presence of his grandfather who was a carpenter. His early awards for carpentry led him to training as an architect as Germany was rebuilt in the early 1950s.

Dieter Rams Design

In 1955, Rams was prompted by an eagle eye friend and applied for a job at the Germany electrical products company, Braun. Erwin and Artur Braun after the death of their father recruited Rams whose job was to modernize the interior of the company which was launching revolutionary electrical products. He became a protege of Ulm school of design luminaries Fritz Eichler, Hans Gugelot and Otl Aicher. He became involved with the product design very quickly and famously added the clear Perspex lid to the SK4 radiogram in 1956. He was later appointed the head of design at Braun from the year 1961 to 1995. Along with his design team he is responsible for the some of the many seminal domestic electrical products and furniture of the 20th century. He is popularly known for his ten principles of good design.

Good design is innovative

The possibilities of innovation are never exhausted by any means. Through innovation and design there is always an avenue for technological development offering new opportunities. However, technological development develops in tandem with innovative technology and will never be an end in itself.

Good design makes product useful

A product that is being designed to be used has to satisfy certain criteria not just functional but also psychological and of aesthetic value. A good design emphasizes the use of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly distract from it.

Good design is aesthetic

The aesthetic quality of a product refers to its integral usefulness because the products that people use on a daily basis affects their well-being. Only well executed objects can be beautiful.

Good design makes a product understandable

A good design brings clarity to a product. It can make the product talk and at best it is self-explanatory.

Good design is unobtrusive

Products that are able to fulfill a purpose are like tools. They are never decorative objects nor do they work for arts. Their design should be neutral and restrained so as to leave room for the users of self-expression.

Good design is honest

A good design does not make a product more valuable, powerful or innovative than it already is. It doesn’t attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that it cannot keep.

Good design is long lasting

A good design is long lasting and avoids being fashionable and never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design it lasts for a very long time and even in today’s throwaway society.

Good design is through, down to the last detail

Nothing must be left to chance or be arbitrary. Care and respect for the product shows a lot of respect to the consumer.

Good design is environmentally-friendly

A great design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It tends to conserve resources minimizing physical and visual pollution throughout the life cycle of the product.

Good design is as little design as possible

A good design is not concentrated on a lot of designs since it has all the essential aspects and the products are not burdened with non-essentials.

Dieter ram’s philosophy

Dieter ram is one of the most influential product designs of the 20th century. In case you don’t recognize the name then most certainly used one of the products he designed like radios, lighters, clocks, juicers, shelves or even hundreds of other products that are designed. He is famous not only for fir the vast array of products that he produced but also due to his prescient ideas about the function of design in this messy world. Dieter Rams is an iconic designer who surely left a mark in the industry with his innovative approach to design. This is apparent not only from his personal designs, but the many products and services that are direct result of his design influence. His influence is most obvious in furniture and appliance products. Influence can also be identified in obscure places like the UI of mobile apps including free fuck sites and mobile dating apps as well as some of the most popular electronic products like smartphones.