“I once said that my aim is to leave out everything superfluous in order to allow the essential to come through.”
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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“I once said that my aim is to leave out everything superfluous in order to allow the essential to come through. The resulting form will be calm, pleasant, understandable and long-lived.”
Dieter Rams
“Less, but better.”
— 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“Functionally oriented design of this kind has always been strongly influenced by technological development, and will continue to be so in the future. The Braun pocket radios that we designed at the end of the 1950s would not have been possible without the new transistor technology at the time. Transistors were not only far smaller than valves, they also required much less power. That meant that for the first time it was possible to make a radio receiver that you could literally put in your pocket.”
— Dieter Rams Primary source“The Braun design department was always involved in self-initiated design studies alongside the usual daily workload. I believe that it is very important for designers to have the creative space to develop and refine their own ideas. Most of our studies never went into production—for various reasons—but they often gave important impulses to product development and our regular design work.”
— Dieter Rams Primary source“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”
— Leonardo da Vinci Disputed“Wish not so much to live long as to live well.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“When the wine enters, out goes the truth.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“We can do anything we want as long as we stick to it long enough.”
— Helen Keller DisputedDesign Essence Simplicity Minimalism