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!