It’s Christmas time and here LDG editor Max Fraser brings you his selection of gifts for the holiday season. As always, we would encourage you to buy well made items with lasting appeal to try to reduce the waste that comes with the merriment and excess. Enjoy!

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Every year in my family, someone buys a new Christmas tree decoration to add to a mish-mash of existing baubles and figurines, each one bringing back memories of a specific year. I find most baubles to be tacky and over-decorated, so I was delighted to discover this mouth-blown and hand engraved glass creation, which somehow encapsulates 2010: fragile and transparent.

Glass baubles by Judith Seng and Alex Valder. £41 from placesandspaces, Clapham (page 154 in LONDON DESIGN GUIDE)

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Candles help add to the atmosphere of Christmas day. These slender glass candlesticks will add an elegant glint to your dining table as you tuck into a feast. A stemware collection by the same designer is also available if you want the entire look.

Tilo range by Anna Torfs. Starting from £130 from Vessel, Notting Hill (page 33 in LDG)

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If, like some members of my family, you are prone to breaking glass then perhaps this etched brass candle holder might be a good option. The detailed pattern unleashes a mass of intricate shadows when lit. There is a similar pendant lampshade version also available.

Etch candle holder by Tom Dixon. £30 from Tom Dixon, Ladbroke Grove (page 32 in LDG)

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OK, back to glass. Well, chunky Quartz crystal actually. These glasses are part of a series designed by Max Lamb for historic crystal company J. & L. Lobmeyr. Lamb wanted to explore the optical effect of faceted crystal, creating a series of 23 cylindrical glasses cut with an increasing number of facets, from 3 to 34. The versions shown above were cut with 6 facets to create thick-walled crystal glassware.

Quartz Series by Max Lamb. £130 (small); £155 (medium); £188 (tall) from Projectory at Phillips de Pury & Company (Saatchi Gallery location)

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If you enjoy a dash of lemon juice with your smoked salmon, try out this futuristic-looking new citrus squeezer. This creation is produced by Alessi, the same company that makes the iconic Juicy Salif lemon squeezer by Philippe Starck (which doesn’t function very well!). Thankfully, and by Starck’s own admission, this one works extremely well!

mysqueeze citrus juicer by Roland Kreiter. £33, available exclusively online from mydeco.com or from Alessi, Mayfair (page 52 in LDG)

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Add some colour to the table with this selection of cheerful steel bowls (gloss on the inside, matt on the outside), originally designed in 1953 by Danish civil engineer, Herbert Krenchel. Excitingly, the iconic design has been reissued in 2010 by Danish brand Normann Copenhagen.

Selection of Krenit bowls by Herbert Krenchel. £12-97 (depending on size) from Skandium, Brompton & Marylebone (pages 20 & 42 in LDG). If you’re searching for a highly-collectible vintage original, visit Rocket Gallery, Shoreditch (page 135 in LDG)

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Of course, Christmas is the time to crack open just about anything that is wet and alcoholic. Here’s a bottle opener that will endure such heavy use, made from cast iron by skilled Japanese craftsmen.

Large bottle opener by Nobuho Miya. £13 from twentytwentyone, Islington (page 119 in LDG)

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A Christmas meal isn’t complete without the crack of some crackers. That said, most of them conceal a useless gift destined for landfill. Not so with these crackers from leading online stationery store, Present & Correct, which are made from graph paper in Devon and contain a few little treasures that you will likely want to keep!

Christmas crackers by Present & Correct. £10 from Present & Correct Pop-In Shop, Clerkenwell or from Present & Correct online shop.

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Over the Christmas period, it is more than likely you’ll get a surprise visit from friends or relatives. So, pull up one of these finely-crafted British-made stools which can double up as a wee side table/drinks perch when not being sat upon.

Stool One (oak) by Another Country. £145 from Another Country or The Temporium, Brompton (9-19th December 2010). Additionally, a limited-edition of 100 solid ash stools has been produced in collaboration with Monocle for £175.

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Of course, if anyone outstays their welcome, show them the door… and these simple coat hooks which they probably failed to notice on arrival!

Ceramic and cork knobs by Jasper Morrison. £9, £14, £21 for ceramic and £8, £10, £12 for cork from Jasper Morrison Shop (page 131 in LDG). Also can be used as handles on furniture. The shop is also open on Saturdays in December.

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During any Christmas down-time, while most people can be found reading a good novel, I’m guilty of using the time to scrub up on my design knowledge. Yeah, cool man. So here is a beast of a book delving into the nuts and bolts of the Eames Office, written and designed over 13 years by ex-employee Marilyn Neuhart and husband John. After this weighty accomplishment, we’ll finally be able to draw a line under the Eames legacy.

The Story of Eames Furniture by Marilyn & John Neuhart. £140 from The Lollipop Shoppe, Spitalfields or directly from the publisher, Gestalten. If you have a spare 16 minutes, be sure to watch this fantastic video about the book.

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Before you sit down to read, it’s important that you have a good light. Here’s a beauty – an architect lamp designed in 1921 by Bernard-Albin Gras and recently reissued. The construction of the lamp, hand made in France, is free from screws or welded joints. There are various versions available but this one is my favourite.

Lampe Gras 207 by Bernard-Albin Gras. £380 from SCP, Shoreditch and Westbourne Grove (pages 136 and 31 in LDG)

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For those of you with children, you probably have to tolerate heaps of ugly plastic toys in your home. Well, American designer David Weeks has designed a series of wooden animals that happily fall into the ‘kidult’ category. Beautifully hand made, each limb is fully flexible and simply held together with elastic. My favourite is Hanno the gorilla.

Hanno the Gorilla by David Weeks. £59 from Aram Store, Covent Garden (page 76 in LDG)

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And on to the New Year. I like to start each year with a fresh new notebook to jot down ideas and future plans. You never know when you will have a lightbulb moment, so it’s best to invest in a good looking book for any public appearances. Crucially, this one has unlined pages (that’s just how I like it), with a Japanese screen printed cover and red linen spine.

Large hand bound notebook. £26 from Darkroom, Bloomsbury. Other colours and sizes are available.

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Finally, a little note to jolt your conscience. A staggering amount of landfill waste is generated each year from excessive packaging as well as unwanted Christmas gifts. We would encourage you to carefully consider the person you are buying for (so that they receive what they actually want), avoid unnecessary packaging, and make a concerted effort to buy into quality items that will last. There, we said it.

Check out GOOD magazine’s ‘10 favourite innovations for reducing plastic consumer waste.’

MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Successful Brighton design store The Lollipop Shoppe has opened its first London outlet within Old Spitalfields Market, selling a diverse portfolio of products from watches to furniture and cushions to lighting.

THE LOLLIPOP SHOPPE

10 Lamb Street, Old Spitalfields Market, London E1 6EA (020 7655 4540)

The product selection at this store tends to favour the quality design classics from big reputable brands such as Vitra, Knoll, Artek, Cassina, and Fritz Hansen.

The 150-square-metre space, arranged over two floors, has been designed by architects Found Associates. The interior has been stripped back to the original brickwork to reveal the Victorian pillars of Old Spitalfields Market.

While exposing the space’s former textures and characteristics, the architects have provided a contrast by installing slick black display units for the edited product selection.

In case you’re wondering about the shop name, it was chosen by the owners Marco and Siobhan Di Rienzo after the 1960s psychedelic garage rock band from Portland, Oregan.

EDITOR’S COMMENTS:

As is policy at LONDON DESIGN GUIDE, I turned up to this store unannounced and hopefully anonymous. My ‘hello-and-a-smile’ radar went on and was thankfully satisfied within seconds of arrival.

Immediate impressions of the space are favourable. Displays are clean and free from clutter as one would expect from a store that was only days old on my visit. Every product is displayed with exhibition-like emphasis which I felt was a bit uptight, particularly in a relatively small space. I would quite like to see more stock choices but I suspect this evolve as the owners grow into their new environment.

I felt rather disappointed that such a high proportion of the stock is comprised of design classics. Nobody questions the virtues of these timeless creations by the likes of Eames, Saarinen, Panton, Bertoia, Jacobsen, Kjaerholm et al. The only problem is London’s design retailers are already awash with the same offerings.

I certainly appreciate the aesthetic style they have opted for at The Lollipop Shoppe, but I can’t help thinking they could be more adventurous with the stock and introduce some items that are not sold elsewhere.

There was an objet on display that indicated that they may be open to such an approach. The laminated cast acrylic sculptures from Vasa Studio (pictured below) were a welcome addition, and I later found out that they are an exclusive to the store. Now we’re talking.

United Visual Artists (UVA) has been commissioned by Virgin Media to create an immersive light installation on London’s South Bank to mark the tenth anniversary of broadband in the UK. Speed of Light is a series of installations that explore the themes of communication and modernity.

‘SPEED OF LIGHT,’ 9th-19th April 2010

BARGEHOUSE

OXO Tower Wharf, Bargehouse Street, London SE1 9PH

The series of installations aims to invoke in the viewer a sense of the ‘magic’ involved in fibre optic communications.

About the project: Stripped back to its materials, fibre optic is a thin strand of glass, with nothing more than a flickering beam of light. UVA have used this beam as the starting point for their work. The installations dramatize the experience of using fibre-optic communication, re-imagining it as an immersive environment.

The story begins with an input from the audience, which is transferred into a pathway of light, leading through the atmospheric environment of the Bargehouse. The continuous line of light evolves through each installation in turn shifting in intensity and form.

Speed of Light uses over 148 lasers across four floors and six rooms of the Bargehouse, a raw and industrial warehouse on the South Bank.

Images © United Visual Artists 2010

This series of four short video diaries have been produced to explain the project:

EDITOR’S COMMENT:

The images in this web post make the installation look cool. However, the real-life experience is a million times more amazing and is another kick-ass multi-sensorial, experiential installation by UVA.

Presumably, Virgin Media has commissioned this for the cool factor = commercial pay-off. Well, that’s absolutely fine by me. I praise the visionary person at Virgin who had the balls to go ahead with this ambitious project. This is truly where commerce and culture can exist side by side. I would encourage other large brands to embrace a similar outlook.

As for the actual installation, go and see it for yourself before it closes. My only wish was that it was open for longer…

Its January 2010 and the start of a new decade. It seems only right that at this milestone, we all consider what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong. In this LDG extract, editor Max Fraser confronts our insatiable appetite to consume and calls for change.

THE STATE OF STUFF

In today’s materialist culture we have become addicted to the constant allure of the ‘new.’ Max Fraser argues that now is the time to change our game.

Over the past decade or so we have lived well beyond our means, propped up by easy access to credit and an attitude that we can have what we want, when we want it. Today we wallow in a culture of uncontested consumerism. As Richard Girling wrote in his book Greed: ‘We acquire, accumulate, and consume so far in excess of “need” that the word itself has fudged its meaning.’*

Girling has a point. We belong to a generation that has never had to go without, and along the way we have created an invisible monster  that feeds off our over-indulgence and wastefulness. It looms on the horizon of Western consciousness, yet we live with the belief that we are somehow immune to the problems it conceals.

The current recession has brought some designers to the consensus that now is the time to address our culture of aimless consumption in the hope of restoring a marketplace with a healthier and more sustainable outlook than before.

As it stands the design industry seems to blindly produce more ‘stuff’, clambering at every opportunity to capture our attention amid a sea of homogeneous and derivative products. It is by no means the only industry that simultaneously creates desire and fuels disposability; in general, the vast majority of ‘stuff’ is only adequately designed and manufactured and capitalises on its own planned obsolescence. We recognise this – the burden on the planet is discussed endlessly – yet until it smacks us in the face, calls for change are likely to go unheard. In the main, we are hypocrites; we know we need to reduce but we feel doubtful that as individuals we can make any difference.

Could we ever move away from consumption altogether? I hear you ask: Why would he, the editor and publisher of an annual guide that ultimately encourages consumption, suggest such a thing?

True, this thinking is naive and short sighted. Trade is engrained in our culture. Our finely tuned production cycle should be credited for providing us with an ever-important source of income – which, in turn, helps keep society’s wheels in motion. Production should not be considered a 21st-century scourge; innovation and technology offer infinite possibilities to a forward-thinking society.

It is also important to recognise that human nature is at its finest when creating. It gives us a sense of purpose. Throughout history our country has spawned pioneers we can thank for everything we value as great. These innovators deserve kudos, not the imitators who follow in their wake. However, as Richard Girling rightfully warns: ‘We salute excellence, but excellence is seldom born of modesty, and still less of moderation.’**

More than ever before, society needs to embrace moderation and readdress the reality of our ‘needs’. But only when we seriously question why we have mountains of stuff cluttering our shelves (as well as our minds and, ultimately, the rubbish tips) will we be able to start changing our consumption patterns. It is time to move away from the concept of disposability and promote quality and longevity, repair and reuse. Consumption is fine, as long as we buy better quality products less often and place value on emotional resonance. The future should be seen as rich with opportunity, but conditional on a move away from today’s self-destructive trajectory. Along the way we need to excite and empower one another and sidestep those who hesitate.

As things stand today, I get the feeling we are just treading water, waiting for others to make the first move. An army of creative entrepreneurs is eager to advance, but seems held back by risk-averse corporations and government. As our history tells it, however, it is during the hard times that human beings have best responded to new challenges. There is every reason why now is the time for change.

* Richard Girling, Greed. Why We Can’t Help Ourselves (2009), p.64

** Richard Girling, Greed. Why We Can’t Help Ourselves (2009), p.83

This extract was taken from pages 158+159 of LONDON DESIGN GUIDE 2010.

Have you ever eaten out while lying down on a comfy bed? Chances are, if you’ve visited Amsterdam you would have been to or heard of the famous Dutch restaurant/bar/club – supperclub – which does exactly that. Now they have opened in London’s Notting Hill.

SUPPERCLUB LONDON

12 Acklam Road, London W10 5QZ (020 8964 6600)

The space is located under the Westway near the top end of Portobello Road on the site of the once legendary 90s nightclub, Subterranea. The space is designed by Concrete, the Dutch design practice also responsible for the various other supperclub locations in the world and the forthcoming W Hotel in London’s Leicester Square (opening Summer 2010).

On arrival, you pass through impressive double doors leading into Bar Rouge – a sumptuous take on a classic hotel bar. This is where patrons meet for a pre-dinner drink and suss out the crowd. When the kitchen is ready for dinner (around 8pm), frosted glass doors slide open and diners are ushered into the vast Salle Neige, a sheer white space and the epicenter of the dining concept.

Diners are shown to their, er, oversized beds which line the sides of the room, as well as along the mezzanine level. It is from here that the rest of the evening unfolds. To a super-cool DJ soundtrack and video projections, drinks are served to your bed along with a four-course tasting menu (£50), which is interspersed with live performances from a myriad of weird and wonderful artists. From the comfort of your bed, you embark on a people-watching extravaganza. 

At the end of the meal, the space is cleared and evolves into a nightclub.

EDITOR’S COMMENTS:

If truth be told, I haven’t yet been to this new London outpost of supperclub. However, with nearly 10 visits to the Amsterdam original under my belt, I feel comfortable enough with their format to comment. 

I defy anyone not to enjoy a night at supperclub. However, I say that from the relative anonymity of their Amsterdam venue. On each visit there, I have wondered if the concept would work in London – an altogether more uptight, self-conscious, dare-I-say pretentious city. Us Brits are not always very good at letting our hair down in public and tend to resort to heavy drinking and embarrassing behaviour to get there. But at supperclub, you really must lose your inhibitions without exercising such tactics.

First up, no matter how cool you think you are or look, remember that you’re dining with no shoes on (note: check no holes in socks before heading out). You’re also lying horizontal, which ends up looking either super-sexy or downright slobbish. Negotiating your plate of food from this position also proves challenging.

My message is simply – don’t go here with the wrong expectations. Relax, smile, chat to your neighbours, laugh at yourself and flirt ferociously. As owner Bert van der Leden would put it, “If you just want to look you should go to the theatre. Here, you make the evening yourself. Come, see, and give yourself over to the world called supperclub.”

A few additional tips: Don’t go here on business unless you are very comfortable with your guests. Don’t expect much change from £100 each. Don’t take a normal table in the middle of the space as you will feel self-conscious all night. 

Darkroom is a directional new store now open on the characterful Lamb’s Conduit Street in Bloomsbury. The store comprises a curated mix of interior and fashion accessories alongside bi-monthly art and sculpture exhibitions.

DARKROOM

52 Lamb’s Conduit Street, London WC1N 3LL (020 7831 7244)

The store is a play on materials, scale, and form. Oversize plaited quilted scarves resemble eiderdowns whilst jewellery made from chunky rope evoke curtain tiebacks. Alongside this, leather accessories take strong influences from saddlery, and oversize trims such as heavy fringing and chains feature strongly.

The interior accessories explore the diverse materials, textures, and production techniques of clothing or jewellery. The boundaries between art and design are questioned by functional pieces that also hold sculptural qualities – a necklace may be worn traditionally or hung on the wall as an objet d’art.

As these images suggest, the store’s visual presentation comprises graphic forms, rich textures, and bold architectural concepts. Products are grouped to create tension and dialogue rather than by genre – a beautiful bag sits alongside a vase or lampshade that shares a similar aesthetic or material.

Darkroom has been set up by Rhonda Drakeford and Lulu Roper-Caldbeck, who come from graphic and fashion backgrounds respectively. 

Images courtesy of Darkroom.

EDITOR’S COMMENTS:

It’s fantastic that Lamb’s Conduit Street has a new independent retail offering to join the street’s other visionary outlets. The cosy location is quintessential ‘Old London’ and lends itself perfectly as a contrasting backdrop for the Darkroom concept.

It is that word – concept – that has been rather jarringly used to describe this store. The connotations are all wrong. In my experience, a ‘concept store’ is an unfortunate term inflicted upon retailers that are normally style over substance and don’t quite fit into a definable retail genre. Such outlets are all very well but can quite often be a mish-mash of expensive unrelated stuff trying ever-so-hard to be frightfully cool. Cynics would say, such places are the right way for dearest to wipe out daddy’s trust fund. 

With that said, I would like to rid Darkroom of such a title. This place has a clear point of view and a vision. It has been put together with hard graft, determination, and integrity by the owners. It is this sort of store that should be supported and that the LONDON DESIGN GUIDE chooses to champion. They put the interest back into shopping. 

At the opening, I came across an edited selection of well-sourced things that I would have bought (had it not been so busy!). There are products that appeal to varying demographics and that don’t break the bank. I shall certainly return to buy some. 

Mayfair gallery, Haunch of Venison, is staging its first exhibition of British artist and designer Stuart Haygarth with an exhibition called ‘Found.’ The show examines his ongoing relationship with abandoned objects and his fascination with taxonomy through a series of new furniture works, lamps and chandeliers.

FOUND, open 1st December 2009-30th January 2010

HAUNCH OF VENISON

6 Burlington Gardens, London W1S 3ET (020 7495 5050)

Haygarth has spent many years gathering seemingly insignificant, discarded items such as ceramic figurines, spectacles, glassware, and plastic objects whilst beachcombing, cycling and on excursions to markets and car boot sales. These are then sorted and graded, methodically stored by  colour, material and subject.

The found materials often inspire the final work through their form, previous use, tactile qualities and their relationship to light. They are then painstakingly compiled to create lamps and furniture, giving otherwise banal and overlooked objects a new significance.

For his new work at the show, Haygarth has been gathering smashed car wing mirrors from narrow roads and ‘hot spots’ in London, such as Rotherhithe Tunnel, using them to create several new objects including a revolving mirror-ball with 350 smashed wing mirrors attached to a mirrored sphere, and a series of wing-mirror shaped tables complete with smashed glass surfaces.

Haygarth has also continued to explore his fascination with spectacles, creating a series of urchin lights for the exhibition – shaggy cascades of frame parts lit from within, and an optical chandelier made from tinted lenses (top image).

Haygarth sees his years of collecting and studying our unwanted items as an opportunity to investigate our social behaviour and habits. He finds beauty in the everyday discarded items, and through his work he challenges perceived notions of precious and beautiful.

Images courtesy of Haunch of Venison: from top – OPTICAL (2007); TIDE (2004); RAFT (2009); DISPOSABLE (date unknown)

EDITOR’S COMMENTS:

Haygarth’s first major show in the UK is housed within truly spectacular space at the Haunch of Venison gallery in Mayfair. One can’t help but be mesmerised by the painstaking care and attention that goes into each piece of work here. Many pieces in the show are new (the images we have here are mainly older pieces) and have taken several years to complete, based on the fact that the found objects from which they are assembled must be collected over time.

And it is the patience of such an undertaking that adds to the awe of his work. TIDE (shown above) is made up of the plastic objects that washed up on the Dungeness coastline in Kent over several years. The obsessive nature of such an undertaking instills as much fascination in the viewer as the beauty of the object itself.

However, at the opening party, I heard several attendees say that Haygarth’s working practice is changing. The giant Mirror Ball made from smashed car wing mirrors has apparently been falsified. These aren’t real smashed wing mirrors but, in fact, new ones that have been smashed in the studio. Er, what? Several pieces are also said to be made by an external fabricator.

I know Haygarth has always flirted between being an artist and designer (handmade vs fabricated) but the charm of his work is led by the idea that he himself collected and assembled each piece. The thought that some of his designs are essentially ‘get the look’ items totally strips him of integrity. I very much hope these were rumours and that I can be proved wrong.

Design Real, curated by the renowned industrial designer Konstantin Grcic, is the Serpentine Gallery‘s first exhibition devoted to contemporary design. Grcic’s selection for the exhibition focuses on ‘real’ items: mass-produced items that have a practical function in everyday life.

DESIGN REAL,  open 26th November 2009 – 7th February 2010

SERPENTINE GALLERY

Kensington Gardens, London W2 3XA (020 7402 6075)

The exhibition presents a wide range of products with different styles and functions, from furniture and household products to technical and industrial innovations. Designs by several well-known designers, such as a chair by Jasper Morrison, luggage by Ross Lovegrove, and waterproof shoes by Zaha Hadid are joined by products from anonymous designers, including a wheel-shaped water container, a municipal recycling bin and a Volvo tail light.

The exhibition aims to provide new perspectives from which to look at the material world around us and encourage new insights into design. “What interests me about industrial design is how these things are made, in what material, and how this has affected their language and their quality,” says Grcic.

He continues, “Some objects are very technically-driven; the function really determines the object. Other objects have much more of a signature or an authorship; you see the handwriting of the designer who made it and that’s what makes it so special. There is only one common denominator for the objects selected: they came onto the market not more than ten years ago.”

A dedicated internet site is the exhibition’s central resource and an integral part of its concept. The site investigates the objects in the exhibition in detail, exploring aspects of their development, production and use.

Images courtesy of Serpentine Gallery: from top – LURE, Cora-Z Spoon Classic (Cormoran); TAIL LIGHT, Volvo XC60 (Volvo); OFFICE CHAIR, Aeron Chair (Herman Miller); MEGAPHONE, ER-1206W (TOA Corporation); FLAT PACK CHAIR, Ellan (IKEA)

EDITOR’S COMMENTS:

The Serpentine Gallery is famous for its revolutionary art exhibitions. For it to move into design for the first time is a bold move. Industrial design in a gallery setting? Really?

My initial reaction was to dislike this show. I loath mass-produced design on pedestals. The notion of not being able to touch it (as I was reminded several times by an exasperated gallery attendant at the opening – argh!) is completely against my principles. For me, design is for everyone. It is to be used. We are the consumers of it.

But then again, so much amazing, everyday design is taken for granted. Because it is usually integrated into the busy mish-mash of everyday life for which it was created, the context with which to appreciate it is lost. As a result, the only ‘design’ to really make us sit up these days is brash and sensationalist.

What the curator has done here is place examples of great design into an environment where people will pay attention and hopefully learn to appreciate that design plays a huge role in every element of daily life, either on a functionalist level or an emotional one.

Refreshingly, the design itself takes the centre stage, not the author of it. Move over celebrity designers. Remember what and who you are designing for.

The exhibition is devoid of any explanations to accompany the exhibits. At first this is frustrating, but be sure to check out the website that goes with the show where you can find thorough justifications for each item’s existence.

For the design literate, the final selection of objects may seem somewhat random. Step back and accept it for what it is – a journey into the mind of Konstantin Grcic who I rate as one of Europe’s finest designers.

At last, the Design Museum is recognising the achievements of legendary German designer Dieter Rams by staging his first definitive UK retrospective. Rams defined an elegant, legible, and rigorous visual design language which has informed the work of countless designers today.

‘LESS AND MORE – The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams’  

18th November 2009 – 7th March 2010

DESIGN MUSEUM

Shad Thames, London SE1 2YD (020 7940 8790)

For 40 years, from 1955-1995, Dieter Rams designed and oversaw the design of over 500 products for the German electronics manufacturer Braun, as well as furniture for Vitsoe. Audio equipment, calculators, shavers and shelving systems are just some of the products created by Rams, each item holds a special place in the history of industrial and furniture design and has established Rams as one of the most influential designers of the late 20th Century.

The exhibition examines how Dieter Rams’ design ethos inspired and challenged perceptions of domestic design and assesses his lasting influence on today’s design landscape. Archive footage, models, sketches and prototypes are displayed alongside specially commissioned interviews with Rams’ contemporaries, which include Jonathan Ive (Apple), Jasper Morrison, Sam Hecht (Industrial Facility), and Naoto Fukasawa. 

Heavily influenced by the Bauhaus and Ulm School of Art in Germany, Dieter Rams pioneered a design spirit which embraced modernity and placed functionality above everything else, resulting in designs that were free of decoration, simple in function and embodied a cohesive sense of order.

Dieter Rams identified his own ‘Ten Principles’ of good design, which, amongst others stated that good design should be innovative, aesthetic, durable, and useful:

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.

We can’t help thinking that many of today’s designers could be reminded of these simple principles before adding yet more stuff to our material landscape.

EDITOR’S COMMENTS:

This exhibition really reminds us of the 20th Century notion of ‘good design,’ which was principally concerned with functionality, efficiency, and material honesty. Recently, the design world has become carried away with the idea of entertainment in design, which often manifests as over-the-top, materially-excessive, somewhat frivolous ’functional’ objects – sensationalist designs that scream for our attention.

Rams’ work was real problem-solving design at its finest and was packaged ready for the consumer to understand and enjoy. No fanfare.

Walking around this exhibition, I was struck by how remarkably calm I felt. Other visitors seemed calm too and somewhat grateful and refreshed.

The designers in the room – presumably both practicing and studying – seemed humbled by the experience as they became realigned with the ingredients and attributes of truly great design.

It seems fitting that this exhibition is staged at a time when the world is trying to heal the wounds created by excess and greed. We can all learn a lot from this.

In 2008, I produced a short video asking leading figures from the design community in London: what is your idea of good design? On the whole, the consensus came remarkably close to Dieter Rams’ ten principles. Watch the video here and keep an eye out for the orange squeezer produced at Braun during Rams’ tenure!