Less but better
10 commandments for good design so we can live better with less that lasts longer
I found a Financial Times newspaper cutting from 2007 about Dieter Rams, a German industrial designer closely associated with the company Braun, and Vitsoe.
A proud member of the functionalist school of industrial design, in the article he listed his Ten Commandments for good design. It struck me that they are as timeless today, as when he first conceived them. And yet he had the humility to add “they are not binding; good design is in a constant state of redevelopment — just like technology and culture.” He saw them more as a helpful means of orientation.
In the 70s, Rams delivered a speech in New Yorks saying, “I imagine our current situation will cause future generations to shudder at the thoughtlessness in the way in which we fill our homes, our cities and our landscape with a chaos of assorted junk.”
Ever since (he is now 92 and still fighting!), he has been an outspoken voice calling for “an end to the era of wastefulness” and to consider how we can continue to live on a planet with finite resources if we simply throw everything away.
Certainly he designed the only alarm clock I would ever buy, and his 606 shelving system for Vitsoe is a true forever buy. So here they are, with some additional notes…