“A record player, a kitchen appliance, a slide projector or a shaver with disorderly, chaotic, confusing or overloaded design cannot fulfil its functions. The harmony of a design too, its aesthetic quality, also has a functional purpose—it facilitates a positive emotional relationship between a device and its user.”
Dieter Rams
Less but better (Primary source)
Less but Better isn’t a comprehensive catalog of Dieter Rams’ work or a complete history of Braun. Instead, it’s something more valuable: a deep dive into the thinking behind some of the twentieth century’s most enduring product designs.
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“Less, but better.”
— Dieter Rams Primary source“I once said that my aim is to leave out everything superfluous in order to allow the essential to come through.”
— Dieter Rams Primary source“It goes without saying that we live with Vitsoe furniture systems; first, because I have only ever designed furniture that I myself would like to have, and second, getting to know the systems in daily use allows me to better recognise where they might be improved or developed further.”
— Dieter Rams Primary source“Good design is innovative. Good design must be useful. Good design is aesthetic design. Good design makes a product understandable. Good design is honest. Good design is unobtrusive. Good design is long-lasting. Good design is consistent in every detail. Good design is environmentally friendly. And last but not least, good design is as little design as possible.”
— Dieter Rams Primary source“The paradox is only a conflict between reality and your feeling of what reality ought to be.”
— Richard Feynman Primary source“Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”
— Thucydides Primary source“Coolness is the greatest quality in a man destined to command.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte Disputed“Silk and satins and scarlets and velvets put out the kitchen fire.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source