Dieter Rams: Principle 1
Principle 1: Good design is innovative
In order to understand the ten design principles that Dieter Rams developed, it is important to start with Rams’ education and early influences. in 1947, at the age of 16, Rams attended the Handwerker-und Kunstgewerbeschule (arts and crafts college), which had recently reopened in Wiesbaden after the end of World War II. Architect Hans Soeder took up the chair position in Wiesbaden. Eckhard Neumann in his essay for Less and More: the Design Ethos of Dieter Rams titled “Dieter Rams is a realistic Utopian” writes the following about Soeder:
Soeder was also a member of Der Ring (1926-33), an association of architects in which representatives of Modernism such as Hugo Häring, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Ernst May and Walter Gropius championed a new form of building and design.
Describing Soeder’s focus for the school Neumann writes, “The ‘provision of the population with sound household effects and durable fittings’ as well as the ‘use of new materials’ (primarily plastics) were a particular focal point.” Understanding the principles that shaped Rams’ early design education and the fact that it was influenced by Modernist ideas helps in the discussion of Rams’ principles.
Innovation can have several different meanings. However, it seems that Rams had a particular understanding of what innovation entails. During a lecture in 1975 Rams stated, “Our design is innovative because the behavior patterns of people change” (Klemp 489). Knowing that Rams was educated with a functionalist perspective, we can assume that innovation in design is a result of a functional requirement. In his lecture, Rams is identifying one of those functional requirements as being the behavior patterns of people. Therefore, “good design is innovative” because it meets the requirements for a new need or function. This understanding of the first design principle would be opposed to a fully functional phone being released as another iteration that changes the color of the case without making any other functional changes.
Rams’ view of innovation opposes consumerism. Innovation is not the production of more for more’s sake. Innovation is not repackaging an existing object in order to make it sell. Innovation is not the “latest and greatest” because it is new. Innovation is meeting the needs of the people as those needs change and evolve and is rooted in a functional purpose.
Source: Ueki-Polet, Keiko, and Klaus Klemp. Less and More: the Design Ethos of Dieter Rams. Gestalten, 2015.