Overview

Dieter Rams is a famous German industrial designer and scholar. He was deeply influenced by his carpenter grandfather since he was a child. He began to study architecture and interior decoration at the Wiesbaden Academy of Arts in 1947, and graduated with honors in architecture in 1953. He then worked extensively on product and furniture design at consumer goods company Braun and furniture company Vitsœ, where his no-frills approach and "less, but better" design philosophy gave his products a timeless quality that has influenced many The unique design also made Rams recognized and appreciated all over the world.

Filmmaker Gary Hustwit's documentary Rams, released in 2018, provides insight into his design philosophy, the process behind some of his most iconic designs, his inspirations and his regrets , Figure 1. The content of this article is the impression after watching the documentary.

Design Philosophy

1. Ten Design Principles

In the late 1970s, Rams became increasingly interested in the world of things around him, an ever-evolving chaos of form, color, and noise that became increasingly incomprehensible to him. As a designer, Rams realizes that he has an important role to play in the business of creation, asking himself "Is the design I make good design?" Design work is subjective and cannot necessarily be measured, yet Rams tries to Express what he thinks is the most important design content, and thus come up with ten design principles, as shown in Figure 2.

• Good design is innovative.
• Good design makes the product useful.
• Good design is aesthetic.
• Good design makes the product easy to understand.
• Good design is unobtrusive.
• Good design is honest.
• Good design lasts.
• Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
• Good design is environmentally friendly.
• Good design is as little design as possible.

2. Product Design of Braun

In 1955, at the prompt of a friend, he applied for a job at Braun, a German electrical products company. Rams entered the world where the Braun Brothers explored the possibilities of home electronics, bringing his personal experience to this revolution in electronics in a new way.

During his 40 years at Braun, Rams developed 500 innovative products as Design Director. Braun products are functional, durable, high quality and beautiful. Many products have not changed over the years and do not need to be replaced by new things. They are characterized by modularity, clean lines, and portability.

For example, the Braun SK 4 radio known as "Snow White" breaks the radio away from the concept of furniture, and uses plexiglass as the surface material so that the operation panel can be clearly presented in front of the user's eyes, as shown in Figure 3.

Rams pursues engineering redesign. He believes that product design is not constantly being forced to come up with new things. This is often a superposition of forms rather than innovation. He advocates starting from internal structure design and improving products from the inside out to explore functions and relationship between forms. For example, the Braun TP 1 record player, known as the first Walkman, played music from the bottom of the record in a compact design, as shown in Figure 4.

Rams migrated the method of the grid system in graphic design to product design, so that the product has a simple and easy-to-use appearance. These styles were later borrowed by electronic product companies and extended in modern App design. For example, the iPod Classic produced by Apple borrows the design style of Braun TP 1, as shown in Figure 5. The Calculator App of the Apple iOS system can also be seen as an extension of the Braun ET 66 calculator in the digital world, as shown in Figure 6. In Gary Hustwit's 2009 documentary Objectified, Rams says Apple is one of the few companies that designs products according to his principles.

Although Braun has a very rich product line, its product categories cover almost all aspects of people's lives, but Rams believes that all the products he designed should come from the same design language, even if they are used in different times and spaces, they should be like Different family members, even in different spaces of the family, can form a whole, as shown in Figure 7. This further expresses Rams' point of view in terms of design influence, he believes that in the fast-changing modern world, design with a certain color and appearance and a prescriptive approach always leads a strong direction. That's why the designs created by Rams are convincing and classic.

Life Attitude

The design philosophy of "less but better" is also Rams' life philosophy, which is reflected in all aspects of his life. In daily life, Rams lives with his various works and gets along with them like relatives, as shown in Figure 8. He believes that household appliances live with users all the time, and should exist as a "practical but not disturbing" living background. Rooted in Rams' concern for the environment, he wanted to design a complete environment, a world in which people could live in a philosophical sense. His design concepts and methods are precisely to create a long- term emotional relationship between users and products, and to generate connections and nostalgia between products and life in daily use.

There is no clear boundary between work and life in Rams' clock, he lives freely in design work, and always perceives design in life. Inspired by the Japanese concept of simplicity and the concept of restraint in many things, he has an attitude of love and respect for nature. He never moves, and the small courtyard at home that he takes care of is a natural courtyard that combines Japanese and American styles, as shown in the picture 9. He believes that the senses can perceive the charm of the world, which cannot be digitized, and excessive digitization will weaken people's perception. In the era of rapid technological development, changes in human behavior are even more precious. Rams uses design to get rid of the so-called "bubble culture" of material abundance.

Outlook

Naoto Fukasawa, a famous Japanese designer, commented on Rams:

"I think he may be the first industrial designer and the last industrial designer."

Rams has designed a wide variety of products for more than 50 years, and they all strictly abide by his design principles, which will continue in merchandise and exhibitions. Rams' design works are not just designs, but a complete set of life value attitudes, which include everything about how to live, help people get rid of redundant and visually confusing things, and filter the valuable content they really need in life . A design philosophy that pays attention to the environment that he passed on to other designers and society, guiding young designers to create better designs. Design has a major impact in reshaping the global future, and amidst the anxieties and fears of an unfamiliar future, design from all fields join forces to point the way to the world.

In a meeting, he gave advice to industrial designers when answering questions: "When walking through a city or a room, please keep your eyes open and don't believe everything the teacher tells you, not all of them are correct." It seems to have a distant echo with the "walk slowly, appreciate" in the oriental aesthetics in the interlacing of time and space.