Less and More

Being an impoverished student it helps that my Mr got himself a Design Museum membership card as I get in for free, as a guest, when I go with him. Ahh the joys!

Well we took advantage of the freebies and went over to see the Dieter Rams exhibition last weekend and never having seen his work all together before, on the internet or “in real life” it was interesting to see how much of his designs have been recreated, or atleast replicated, today.

Dieter Rams set about expressing the ten most important principles for what he considered was good design. (Sometimes they are referred to as the ‘Ten Commandments’.)

Good Design…

is innovative
makes a product useful
is aesthetic
makes a product understandable
is unobtrusive
is honest
is long lasting
is thorough, down to the last detail
is environmentally friendly
is as little design as possible

There was a section of the exhibit where designers from this decade who have been influenced by Dieter Rams (I didn’t get pics of this unfortunately) Johnathan Ive’s one of them but then that is no secret, Apple’s designs are unmistakably influenced by minimal design it was only obvious that Rams would have some input if even an indirect one.

I’ve included a few pics of my most favourite pieces from the exhibit but I recommend you take a trip to the museum yourself and have a peek at the whole collection.