Chaos & order: Gary Hustwit’s documentary on Dieter Rams will soothe your soul

Dieter Rams, the iconic designer whose Ten Principles of Good Design published in the 1970s are now more relevant than ever is explored in Gary Hustwit’s as simple as it gets documentary.

Rams called for all design objects to be functional, long-lasting, beautiful and environmentally-friendly long before anyone else dared to speak of humanity’s addiction to consumerism.

Always a creator with a “less but better” aesthetic and approach Ram’s sustainable way of life should be a mantra to all. 

In the documentary Hustwit interviews Vitsœ managing director Mark Adams, Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa, writer Sophie Lovell, Vitra Design Museum director Mateo Kries and designer Dietrich Lubs, who is Rams' former Braun colleague.

Released in late 2018, Rams is the first-ever documentary on the prolific designer who spent more than three decades as chief design officer at German electronics company Braun and whose work was a major influence on the designs of Apple.

According to Hustwit, Rams has regrets as he considers himself responsible for the overproduction culture we live in and its lethal impact on the environment. 

Director Gary Hustwit, a creator who has given us the Helvetica must-watch documentary and more films both inspiring and insightful, spent three years with Dieter Rams, at his home in Kronberg and on his travels. 

“He says himself that if he could have done it all over again, he would not have chosen to become a designer,” Hustwit told Dezeen. 

Back in the late 1970s, Dieter Rams was becoming increasingly concerned by the state of the world around him: “An impenetrable confusion of forms, colours and noises.”

Aware that he was a significant contributor to that world, he asked himself an important question: is my design good design?

His answer is expressed in his ten principles for good design so on the occasion of this online premiere of his documentary these are Dieter Ram’s ten principles for good design one should follow:

1. Good design is innovative.

The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.

2. Good design makes a product useful.

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

3. Good design is aesthetic.

The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products we use every day affect our person and our well-being. But only well-executed objects can be beautiful.

4. Good design makes a product understandable.

It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product talk. At best, it is self-explanatory.

5. Good design is unobtrusive.

Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.

6. Good design is honest.

It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.

7. Good design is long-lasting.

It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today’s throwaway society.

8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail.

Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the user.

9. Good design is environmentally-friendly.

Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimises physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.

10. 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.