dieter rams: ten principles for good design

8/2/2019 Dieter Rams: Ten Principles for Good Design

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Vitss ethos

Living better, with less, that lasts longer. Mark Adams, managing director of Vits explains our ethos.

Dieter Rams:

ten principles

for good designBack in the early 1980s, Dieter Rams was becoming increasingly concerned by the state of the world arounhim an impenetrable confusion of forms, colours and noises. Aware that he was a significant contributoto that world, he asked himself an important question: is my design good design?


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As good design cannot be measured in a finite way he set about expressing the ten most important principlefor what he considered was good design. (Sometimes they are referred as the Ten commandments.)

Here they are.

Good design is

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


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Good design makes a

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


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Good design is

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

Good design makes aproduct

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


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Good design is

unobtrusiveProducts fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their desigshould therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the users self-expression.


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Good design is honest

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

Good design is long-

lastingIt avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts manyyears even in todays throwaway society.

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Things which are different in order simply tobe different are seldom better, but that whichis made to be better is almost alwaysdifferent.

Dieter Rams, 1993

My goal is to omit everything superfluous so

that the essential is shown to best possibleadvantage.

Dieter Rams, 1980

Good design is

thorough, down to the

last detailNothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards tconsumer.


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Good design is

environmentally-

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

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Good design is as little

design as possibleLess, but better because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened withnon-essentials.

Back to purity, back to simplicity.


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Back in 1959 Vitss proposition was to eschew fashion while creating products that would be the neutralcanvas on which to paint your colourful life.

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Our shelving system

Designed by Dieter Rams in 1960, 606 Universal Shelving System was conceived to be timeless.

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dieter rams: ten principles for good design

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