Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Good design is...


We went to the Design Museum in London at the weekend to visit a very interesting exhibition about the work of Dieter Rams, an industrial designer who was the Head of Design for Braun from 1961 to 1995. He's generally considered the inspiration behind many of Apple's designs, including the iPod and the MacBook, so I was already expecting clean and beautiful products. But I didn't expect to find his work and his vision of what good design is so inspiring. .


According to Rams:
Good design is innovative.
Good design makes a product useful.
Good design is aesthetic.
Good design makes a product understandable.
Good design is unobtrusive.
Good design is honest.
Good design is long-lasting.
Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
Good design is environmentally friendly.
Good design is as little design as possible.

(Copyright Dieter Rams, amended March 2003 and October 2009)



I was so inspired by his words that I actually took more photos of his quotations than the actual products, so I'll leave you with my favourites:










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12 comments:

  1. JanJanuary 26, 2010 at 12:46 PM

    Interesting B
    "Question everything generally thought to be obvious"
    Have my customers been reading these quotes I wonder?
    :)

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  2. ElizabethJanuary 26, 2010 at 1:07 PM

    Thanks for photographing these quotation. Always love to read information/ideas behind a product.

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  3. FrancescaJanuary 26, 2010 at 1:29 PM

    This is very interesting. I never reflected on the fact that industrial designers have a great responsibility creating lasting and functional objects while not wasting the resources of our earth.

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  4. PollyJanuary 26, 2010 at 2:37 PM

    Design Museum is fascinating, isn't it? Believe it or not, I was supposed to go there last Saturday but the cold got better of me. How weird would it be if we bumped into each other :-)

    Fantastic quotes!

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  5. RachJanuary 26, 2010 at 2:57 PM

    How inspirational, I wonder how long the exhibition is on - i'd love to see it. Isn't the Design Museum wonderful? So esoteric and surprsing. I love the "irrelevance is out" quote, I think I'll enlarge it and put it above my desk!

    R XX

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  6. janeJanuary 26, 2010 at 3:32 PM

    love these quotes. i will now look at braun´s products in a whole new light. besos!

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  7. CharJanuary 26, 2010 at 3:55 PM

    he sounds very intriguing

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  8. lamediterràniaJanuary 26, 2010 at 5:28 PM

    blanca, eres una caña de verdad eh jajaja
    me encanta tu vida!
    yo siempre hago eso de fotografiar las frases de los museos que me parecen bonitas, aunque a veces ni se lean!

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  9. McGillicuttyJanuary 27, 2010 at 11:28 AM

    I love this... and now I'm inspired too.. basically he's saying cut the crap, leave out the frill, let's get down to business.
    I totally agree with the "American styling" quote, it's ridiculous how they change things just for the sake of it... other than what matters such as architecture!!!! It's all about the "now"!!! stepping off soap box... hugs and kisses ... xoxox

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  10. GuusjeJanuary 27, 2010 at 12:59 PM

    love design!

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  11. ;)January 29, 2010 at 12:03 PM

    Thanks for the quotes ! and for sharing the demonstration we can't visit ! Very interesting !

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  12. spudballooFebruary 1, 2010 at 7:45 AM

    Fantastic, I adore the quotes. I didn't know about him (ut then I know NOTHING about design). What's the top photo?

    Looks very interesting. x

    ReplyDelete

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