Dieter Rams Quotes

Things which are different in order simply to be different are seldom better, but that which is made to be better is almost always different.

The composition of these rooms represents the basic intention behind my design: simplicity, essentiality and openness.

People react positively when things are clear and understandable.

Good design is innovative
2. Good design makes a product useful
3. Good design is aesthetic
4. Good design makes a product understandable
5. Good design is unobtrusive
6. Good design is honest
7. Good design is long-lasting
8. Good design is thorough, down to the last detail
9. Good design is environmentally friendly
10. Good design is as little design as possible

Good design makes a product understandable.

An honest design communicates solely the functions and values it offers. It does not attempt to manipulate buyers and users with promises it cannot keep.

We designers, we don't work in a vacuum. We need business people. We are not the fine artists we are often confused with.

I sit, I think, I make some drawings. As a designer, you cannot retire totally.

I hate everything that is driven by fashion.

The design should make the product speak to you.

A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasizes the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.

Question everything generally thought to be obvious.

Less, but better.

Indifference towards people and the reality in which they live is actually the one and only cardinal sin in design

I don't like computers. I still like to do my drawings by hand.

Good design is as little design as possible. Less, but better - because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.

Good design means as little design as possible.

There is a lot of bad architecture. What we need more is to look at how our landscape should look in the next decades.

My goal is to omit everything superfluous so that the essential is shown to best possible advantage.

Quiet is better than loud.

I am troubled by the devaluing of the word 'design'. I find myself now being somewhat embarrassed to be called a designer. In fact I prefer the German term, Gestalt-Ingenieur. Apple and Vitsoe are relatively lone voices treating the discipline of design seriously in all corners of their businesses. They understand that design is not simply an adjective to place in front of a product's name to somehow artificially enhance its value. Ever fewer people appear to understand that design is a serious profession; and for our future welfare we need more companies to take that profession seriously.

Products have to be designed in a way that they are comprehensible.

Good design is long-lasting! It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated ...

I believe designers should eliminate the unnecessary. That means eliminating everything that is modish because this kind of thing is only short-lived.

Good design is honest.

My heart belongs to the details. I actually always found them to be more important than the big picture. Nothing works without details. They are everything, the baseline of quality.