Inspiration.3 - Less but better
The Ten Principles for Good Design by Dieter Rams
Each month the Glove Factory in Holt hold a Rooster Talk and they kindly lent me the floor in November to talk to about 50 local business people.
My topic was The 10 Principles for Good Design, written by Dieter Rams about 40 years ago.
His "less, but better" approach to design has inspired a host of products and a generation of designers.
Jonny Ive (designer of iPods, iPhones, iMacs and many other things beginning with an 'i') once wrote of him:
“He remains utterly alone in producing a body of work so consistently beautiful, so right and so accessible.”
My Rooster Talk aimed to take people through those guiding principles and explain why they are relevant in today's complex world. It aimed to offer a view on how good design:
Can be useful, beautiful and long lasting.
Can help reduce yearning for instant gratification and desiring the next big thing.
Although I showed some of his masterful designs, I was aware that their functional, minimalist and modernist designs wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste. So I wanted to show examples of things still used today that demonstrated each principle.
But why is a web designer talking about a product designer?
I don’t claim to be an expert in product design. But that’s partly the point.
His product designs are first and foremost about making things better for people. All designers need to put people first. It doesn’t matter if we are designing a product, a project, a building or a website. Design is the layer between technology and people.
It’s also important to look outside your own field and explore how others faced with similar challenges have created elegant solutions. Without continually learning and looking for ideas in adjacent areas, we would stagnate.
Furthermore, these 10 Principles for Good Design go beyond being just a philosophy about design. It relates to our impact on the environment, about how we consume things and ultimately about the choices we make at home and at work.
The examples used are deliberately varied. Electrical products are included, but also perfume and food. I’ve also missed things out. People came up to me afterwards and said what about Mini, Doc Martens or Dyson? Yes, they would all be worthy of inclusion. I could also have included the Lloyds Building, cranial osteopathy or a kilner jar.
Before we move onto The 10 Principles, a caveat.
As Dieter Ram’s himself acknowledged, these principles are not cast in stone. He expected them to change over time as new ways of thinking develop.
Secondly, there is always an exception to every rule. The examples I choose are sometimes contradictory (especially no.9). Rules are there to be broken. Challenging convention can lead us to make things better.
These are not commandments; they are just a guide to make you think and perhaps use some of them as you go about your business.
I hope you enjoy reading them. If you’d like to chat about them, or if you disagree with them, or maybe have a better example, I’d love to hear from you. It’s an area that is worthy of discussion!
“Less, but better... less design is not a constraint, but an advantage which allows us more space for our real life.”
Shared under the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. With thanks to Dieter Rams and Vitsoe.
