Exhibition – Design Museum, London 2009-2010

As head of design at Braun, Rams was able to draw on company’s tradition of innovation that went back to its foundation, and the pool of talent that the family-owned firm attracted.

Rams was born in1932  in Wiesbaden, Germany. He trained as an architect before joining electronics manufacturer Braun in 1955. Formerly he recruited to Braun as an architect and interior designer.

Dieter Rams was aware that he as a professional was a significant contributor to the world, thus he asked himself an important question: “is my design good design ?”

As good design cannot be measured, he set about expressingthe ten most important principle for what he considered was good design, but even until now they are still appropriate. Sometimes they are referred as the ‘Ten Commandmets’.

the Dieter Rams design ‘Ten commandments’:

Good design should be innovative

The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.

Good design should be make a product useful

A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.

good design is aesthetic design

The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products we use every day affect our person and our well-being. But only well-executed objects can be beautiful.

good design will make a product understandable

it clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product talk. At best, it is self-explanatory

good design is unobtrusive

Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression

good design is honest

It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.

good design is long-lived

it avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today’s throwaway society

good design is consistent in every detail

Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.

good design is environmentally friendly

Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimises physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.

Good design is as little design as possible…

Less, but better –  because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials.

Not everybody appreciated Ram’s aesthetic. The artist Richard Hamilton celebrated the visual purity of Braun toaster in series of prints, but critic Reyner Banham complained that it could only work with bread when it was sliced as thinly as possible. While products were new, they had already become something more self-conscious than the anonymous excellence that Rams aspired to offer.

After Rams retired, and Braun became a subsidiary of an American multi-national, the technologically obsolete products of his era have become both a cult, and the source of continuing inspiration to succeeding generations of designers, who look to Rams’ tradition of restrained simplicity as the route to order in chaotic world.

The design was avant-garde for its time. And now it’s already runs inside of  these days designer, consciously or unconsciously influence them.

Quotes :

“ A product must not claim feature it does not have (more innovative, more efficient, or higher value), it must not influence or manipulate buyers and users. “

“Question everything generally, thought to be obvious “

“I hate everything that is driven by fashion. From the beginning it was hating the sixties American way of styling. Especially the cars, they changed their styling every two ears to sell new ones. Which has nothing to do with good design.”

noviardi prasetya