Tag: design

Stop Trying to be the next Dieter Rams

 

Over the past couple of months I have started to see more and more people refer to what they have design as being based off of a Dieter Ram’s Design. Which kind of worries me to a certain extent. Because Dieter Rams’s 10 principles of design are such an elegant and simple set of rules to help influence and improve your work.

If you didn’t know Jonathan Ive is a huge Dieter Rams fan. Which is one of the reasons why apple’s products look the way they do. But lets get back to the topic of this post.

I am not saying its a bad thing to be influenced by Dieter Rams, but if you base your design work on what he’s done how is your work going to look like your own. Learn what influences Dieter Rams and apply that to your own work.

Remember

Be a Student not a follower – Jim Rohn

Here’s Dieter Rams 10 principles of design

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.

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 emphasizes the usefulness of a product while disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.

Good Design Is Aesthetic : The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products are used every day and have an effect on people and their well-being. Only well-executed objects can be beautiful.

Good Design Makes A Product Understandable : It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product clearly express its function by making use of the user’s intuition. At best, it is self-explanatory.

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.

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

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.

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 consumer.

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.

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.

 

Inspirational Quotes on Design

Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose.

— Charles Eames

A designer is a planner with an aesthetic sense.

— Bruno Munari

Design is intelligence made visible.

– Don Newgren

Great things are not done by impulse, but a series of small things brought together.

– Vincent Van Gogh

The life of a designer is a life of fight. Fight against the ugliness. Just like a doctor fights against disease. For us, the visual disease is what we have around, and what we try to do is cure it somehow with design.

– Massimo Vignelli

Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations

– Paul Rand

Advertising doesn¹t create a product advantage. It can only convey it

– William Bernbach

Perfect typography is certainly the most elusive of all arts. Sculpture in stone alone comes near it in obstinacy.

– Jan Tschichold

People think that design is styling. Design is not style. It’s not about giving shape to the shell and not giving a damn about the guts. Good design is a renaissance attitude that combines technology, cognitive science, human need, and beauty to produce something that the world didn’t know it was missing.

– Paola Antonelli

It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.

– Steve Jobs

Being a famous designer is like being a famous dentist.

– Noreen Morioka

How Luxury Advertisements focus on the product

I’m pretty sure you all have seen at least one upscale advertisement. One thing I have always noticed is that they tend to focus on the product and the experience more then anything. Also the advertisements are simple and understandable.

The advertisement above shows a simple and luxurious feel symbolize an elegant feel. The surrounding colors blend and match well with her outfit. If you notice the background brick wall and what looks like a cement pillar. So those elements including the jacket instantly remind me of new york. Check out some more luxury advertisements Here

Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter

Charles and Ray Eames The Architect and Painter

 

If you have not seen this documentary I definitely recommend you take some time to do so. Learning about the Eames’s lifestyle and their approach to design influenced me a lot. I was also shocked by some of the things that happened along the way with their life and etc.

The Eames lounge chair is a piece of furniture that I will be getting because it is so comfortable and wonderfully designed. But back to the documentary. In this documentary you will learn the history of the beginning of Charles And Ray Eames, You will also learn a lot about how they ran their design studio. I’ll be the first to admit I do not agree with some things they did but I respect them both for what they have done for history and design.

The Architect and Painter

Let me know what you think of the documentary in the comments below.

Career Advice – Graphic and Creative Designers and Directors

Great Advice to anyone needing a direction on how to go about getting a career in the design industry. Because I personally want to live in New York and be a designer for a couple of years and then move to london and be a designer there for awhile. I am personally fascinated by the different ways of thinking and approaches to design.

Whats the best advice you’ve gotten about being a designer?

Is Spec Work Evil? The Online Creative Community – SXSWi 2009

I’ve been a victim of being sucked into the spec work field. But I do it mainly so I will be able to have the experience and to add it for my resume. But I do agree that it devalues the profession of design. There are sooo many sites that have crowd sourcing for design work. Which is pretty pathetic and just another business model. But I do not have a problem helping someone out with design work as long as they we will work out a barter system that will help each other out.

Is the Internet Ruining Design?

 

I feel with the internet it can definitely have a great impact on how a design can turn out to be. Because everything is so available to be seen. I still force myself to not depend on the internet as much as I used to for inspiration when I first started designing. Because if you depend to learn how someone else has done a design how will you ever learn how to think and create your own work?