Dieter Rams: Ten Principles for Good Design
This book presents Dieter Rams' aesthetic philosophy through highlights from a forty-year career designing iconic consumer products that enhance our daily lives.
For decades, anyone who cared about product design looked to the Braun label when choosing their appliances, radios, and other consumer items. Dieter Rams, the guiding force behind the Braun look, breaks down his design principles and processes in this elegant new paperback edition. Enumerating each of his ten principles such as "good design is innovative"; "good design is aesthetic"; "good design is useful", etc., this bestselling book presents one hundred items that embody these guidelines. Taken together, the images and texts offer the most comprehensive overview of Dieter Rams' work to date and will serve as both a reference and an inspiration for anyone interested in how and why good design matters.
“In 1957 I began to develop a storage system that formed the basis of the company Vitsœ, which was founded in 1959. Thus the ideology behind my design is engrained within the company.”
Dieter Rams
Dieter Rams was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1932. Rams has radically changed the way we perceive electronic objects, with his experience and his modular way driven by clean and uncluttered lines. He implemented a new aesthetic style that would serve as inspiration for future generations. His designs have as their main objective to improve people’s quality of life, by creating extremely functional, durable, and useful products that convey emotions that consumers identify with.
Together with his design team, he was responsible for many of the seminal domestic electrical products — and some furniture — of the 20th century.
Cees W. De Jong
Cees W. de Jong is Director of the design studio and publishing company V+K Design-Publishing in the Netherlands. He has written a number of books, including Dutch Graphic Design, New Poster Art, Creative Type, Piet Mondrian: The Studios and Sans Serif.
Credits
Editor: Cees W. De Jong
Contributor: Klaus Klemp , Erik Mattie, Jorrit Maan
Publisher: Prestel
Country: Germany
Photographs: ©Thom Atkinson
