What Makes Dieter Rams Famous?
An American movie maker named Gary Hustwit is in the process of making a documentary film about industrial designer Dieter Rams, the design director of German consumer products company Braun from 1955 to 1995 and current chief designer for British furniture manufacturer Vitsoe.
At the age of 84, Rams is something of a legend in product and industrial design circles. His landmark conceptions, such as the ET66 calculator for Braun and the 606 Universal Shelving System for Vitsoe, have created lasting impressions that have influenced everyone from Apple Chief Design Officer Jonathan Ive (who copied the look of the ET66 for the onscreen calculator of the company’s iPhones) to Japanese Fashion Designer Jun Takahashi of the cult brand Undercover. Indeed, in Hustwit’s previous documentary film “Objectified,” about manufactured objects, both Rams and Apple’s Ive appear in major sections talking about their design approaches. One can see the impact that Rams’ famous design principles have had on Ive’s methodologies and the products he’s come up with for Apple, including the iPod and the iMac.
How Do Americans Know Rams?
At Braun, Rams designed everything from stereos to electric razors to cigarette lighters. Many Americans know and have purchased his signature alarm clocks, clock radios, watches and coffeemakers, without knowing who designed them. President John F. Kennedy famously used a Rams-designed Braun electric fan at a speech he gave in Frankfurt in 1963. Less well known are Rams’ models of televisions, speakers, movie cameras and slide projectors for Braun, all of which are marked by a conspicuous minimalism and a lack of superfluous controls, styling or excessive markings. At Vitsoe, Rams established well-received lines of chairs, office furniture and storage case goods.
What is Rams’ Style
Rams’ design precepts can be summed up in one phrase: “as little design as possible” — occasionally restated as the even more elegant “less but better.” By stripping a product down to its core functionality and then basing the item’s form on that functionality, Rams allows his designs to incorporate only that which is necessary to operate and understand the object at a basic level. As such, Rams’ executions stand apart from so many of today’s modern products, which chiefly aim to grab attention, distract, waste time and ultimately pollute the environment due to their superfluousness and poor manufacturing quality.
Many of Rams’ products eschew color, using it only for a button or an accent, while the basic product is rendered in a utilitarian gray, black or white. Rams intends his products to be simple, sleek and extremely easy to use — the opposite of anything complex, flashy or garish.
How is Catsy Inspired by Dieter Rams?
For the past 15 years at Catsy has been been developing product information management and catalog publishing applications for business users and designers. We believe that great design is seamless which is why our applications have been rigorously user tested with direct feedback incorporated in. Feel free to checkout out our Resource Center for catalog tutorials and articles along with our Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
