Dieter Rams Quotes & Sayings

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

People react positively when things are clear and understandable. — Dieter Rams

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

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. — Dieter Rams

Quiet is better than loud. — Dieter Rams

You cannot understand good design if you do not understand people; design is made for people. — Dieter Rams

Design should not dominate things, should not dominate people. It should help people. That's its role. — Dieter Rams

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

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. — Dieter Rams

I like to be in New York. Le Corbusier described it in the 1930s as a 'wonderful catastrophe.' It is still a wonderful catastrophe, but inspiring. — Dieter Rams

Good design is making something intelligible and memorable. Great design is making something memorable and meaningful. — Dieter Rams

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. — Dieter Rams

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. — Dieter Rams

One of the most significant design principles is to omit the unimportant in order to emphasize the important. — Dieter Rams

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. — Dieter Rams

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

Having small touches of colour makes it more colourful than having the whole thing in colour. — Dieter Rams

I hate everything that is driven by fashion. — Dieter Rams

As designers, we have a great responsibility. — Dieter Rams

All too much of the man-made is ugly, inefficient, depressing chaos. — Dieter Rams

Good design is thorough, down to the last detail. — Dieter Rams

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. — Dieter Rams

Not the spectacular things are the important things - the unspectacular things are the important things, especially in the future. — Dieter Rams

Less, but better. — Dieter Rams

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

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

Good design is honest. — Dieter Rams

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

The design should make the product speak to you. — Dieter Rams

I am not an early bird. I go to bed normally between midnight and 1 o'clock, so it is understandable that I cannot be an early bird. I wake up around 9 o'clock. — Dieter Rams

Good design means as little design as possible. — Dieter Rams

Good design makes a product understandable. — Dieter Rams

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

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 — Dieter Rams

Question everything generally thought to be obvious. — Dieter Rams

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