Razor Branding Blog

10 Principles of Good Design

In honor of Walter Landor’s birthday, today, we profile another German designer who contributed so much to our field.

Dieter Rams was a German industrial designer born in 1932. His 10 principles of good design are still true to this day:

• Good design is innovative
• Good design makes a product useful
• Good design is aesthetic
• Good design helps us to understand a product
• Good design is unobtrusive
• Good design is honest
• Good design is durable
• Good design is consequent to the last detail
• Good design is concerned with the environment
• Good design is as little design as possible

Rams once explained his design approach in the phrase “Weniger, aber besser” which freely translates as “Less, but better.” Many of his designs — coffee makers, calculators, radios, audio/visual equipment, consumer appliances and office products — have found a permanent home at many museums over the world, including MoMA in New York.

It is great to see the tenets of our industry still hold true today.