Dieter Rams. If that name doesn’t ring a bell I urge you to look him up. Dieter Rams is most likely one, if not the most influential designer of the outgoing 20th century. Apple’s Sir Jony Ive wouldn’t design the products which made him famous if it wouldn’t be for the design language which Dieter Rams created for Braun in the 70s and 80s.
Rams created a set of ten design principles which every designer should wear as a tattoo. Heck, I would.
Two years ago students from the International School of Design in Cologne, Germany (my home town) created “The Black Cube” project where they presented some of the most brilliant designers with a black cube and asked them to talk about it. Among the designers was Rams.
Watch the video — It’s on my regular rotation of “watch again and again” videos.
What strikes me most is his extension to his ten principles — by asking the question: What would society look like if people consumed less? — and produce less, but better things.
Let’s make 2013 the year where we do less but better. In everything we do. Less but better.