Capricorn & Leo

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

Dieter Rams

German industrial designer, Dieter Rams, once explained his design approach in the phrase "Weniger, aber besser" which translates to "Less, but better.” You probably recognize, or own, some his designs without realizing it since his hand was behind many razors, stereos and other daily items for Braun. {A little aside... we had one of his awesome orange coffee makers for years that, in a cleaning frenzy, we decided to sell at a yard sale. A woman came along to buy it, loaded it onto her bicycle and then promptly dropped and broke the carafe. Such a shame! We still cringe and kick ourselves over that one.} Rams worked for Braun as a designer from 1955-1995. There are two books out on his work, Dieter Rams: As Little Design as Possible (Phaidon) by the British design historian Sophie Lovell and Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams (Gestalten), edited by Keiko Ueki-Polet and Klaus Kemp. On a contemporary note, Apple designed the digital keypad of the iPhone calculator as an homage to Mr. Rams. It's a replica of the 1977 ET44 calculator he developed for Braun with Dietrich Lubs. And Jonathan Ive, head of Apple’s industrial design, wrote the foreword of As Little Design as Possible. In the 1980s, Rams issued 10 principles for what he considered to be good design. They still hold strong.

1. Good design is innovative.