I went to a talk last night at the Goethe Institut, where the Director of the Design Museum was discussing Dieter Rams' 10 principles with a panel of experts (see below).
More details here.
One of the panelists said the principles could be applied to system/ infrastructure/ urban design and architecture.
My 11th principle would be 'check your Gran gets it' - the panelists were quite anti-focus group for product development, and more interested in presenting the finished product and seeing how the market takes it as you should know your market (a laboratory approach). I wandered what their take would be on asking people and drawing them into the design discussion the way we do.
Ideas suggested by the panel were:
- product design is giving way to software design (products are often a vessel for the true product which is the software, rather than mechanics)
- all these things go in waves (miniature products, style over function, function over style etc)
- involving the sales team in the design process (as done at Apple) can lead to more successful sales of product/ mixing up designers and engineers can be good for the design... basically cross-disciplinary learning and design can be excellent for innovation
- giving the creatives some time for their own private projects can help boost creativity
- 'branding' is a bad word as it suggests imposing something upon something else, rather than letting something grow organically (I personally think Mark Adams had a problem with the word, he said the word isn't ever used in his shop)
Anyway, some food for thought. An exhibition of Rams' work and associated designs is currently on show at the Design Museum - it's in its final week.
What would your 11th principle be?
Dieter's are copied below.
Cheers,
Caf
* * * * * * *
Good design is innovative.
Good design makes a product useful.
Good design is aesthetic.
Good design makes a product understandable.
Good design is unobtrusive.
Good design is honest.
Good design is long-lasting.
Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
Good design is environmentally friendly.
Good design is as little design as possible.
Copyright Dieter Rams, amended March 2003 and October 2009
Panel Discussion: Chaired by Deyan Seudjic (Director of the Design Museum).
Speakers: Mark Adams (Managing Director, Vitsoe), Prof.Dr. Klaus Klemp (Head of Exhibitions, Museum fur Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt), and Sam Hecht (Co-founder of Industrial Facility).
2 comments:
Thanks very much for your comments about our discussion at the Goethe Institute.
Just to be clear: being against focus groups does not mean being against customers. At Vitsoe we are listening to our customers every minute of the day - worldwide - and forming our design decisions based on that feedback. But we do not take finished ideas to focus groups. That's different.
Also, I have no problem with the word 'brand'. Simply we do not use it at Vitsoe because we are not seeking to apply a gloss to the business. Our business is what grows from within. Who and what we are oozes from every pore of our being. We call it Vitsoe.
Thanks for your comment Mark,and for the clarification. It was a very thought-provoking discussion and I'd be interested to hear about any other talks you have coming up soon.
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