Die­ter Rams.

Die­ter Rams was born in 1932 in Wies­ba­den. He stu­died at the Aca­de­my of Fine Arts in his home­town.  He admits that his grand­fa­ther, a car­pen­ter by tra­de, had a big impact on his care­er.  He was the per­son that instil­led in Die­ter firm belief that objects sho­uld be sim­ple and func­tio­nal. The desi­gner fol­lo­wed this rule till the end of his care­er. Rams is a master of func­tio­na­lism and one of the most impor­tant desi­gners of the 20th cen­tu­ry. For 40 years (1955 – 1995) he has been the head of design at the Braun com­pa­ny. Many of his desi­gns are con­si­de­red ico­nic. Many cri­tics cla­im that Apple pro­ducts were inspi­red by his design.

The cre­ator him­self once said:

- How would a com­pu­ter of my design look today? Like one of the Apple pro­ducts. In many new­spa­pers or on the Inter­net people keep com­pa­ring Apple pro­ducts to things that I desi­gned when wor­king for Braun. But I think that the­ir design is bril­liant. I do not think of it as an imi­ta­tion. I con­si­der it to be a compliment.

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Good design.

Jobs had to leave the Apple com­pa­ny for a few years becau­se of his clash with the CEO John Scul­ley. He re-ente­red the com­pa­ny in 1997. At that time he star­ted atta­ching a lot of impor­tan­ce to the way his pro­ducts looked. He wor­ked and liste­ned only to Joh­na­tan Ive. They met by acci­dent. Right after coming back to the com­pa­ny, Jobs star­ted looking for a chief desi­gner. He took into con­si­de­ra­tion the most remar­ka­ble cre­ators of that time. He also visi­ted design depart­ments across the coun­try. He stop­ped i.a. in Cuper­ti­no, whe­re Jona­than was the direc­tor. It tur­ned out that they were both „on the same wave­length”. Jobs cho­se the young artist to be his chief desi­gner (he is now a Senior Vice-Pre­si­dent). Toge­ther they desi­gned the uni­ver­sal Apple pro­ducts – the iMac, the ico­nic iPod, and iPhone.

Jona­than Ive.

Ive was born and raised in Ching­ford in the North-Eastern part of Lon­don. His care­er was influ­en­ced by his father, a gold­smith and excel­lent cra­ft­sman, who lec­tu­red at the local col­le­ge. He instil­led respect and sen­si­bi­li­ty into his son. Jona­than also appre­cia­ted pre­ci­se reali­za­tion as well as atten­tion to deta­il. He often said:

- Whe­ne­ver I sen­se a kind of slop­pi­ness in a pro­duct, it real­ly dis­gu­sts me.

Ste­ve got real­ly atta­ched to his new desi­gner. He tru­sted him. He gave him almost unli­mi­ted fre­edom in terms of action and deci­sion-making. He spo­ke of him: „Besi­des, Jony under­stands that Apple is a com­pa­ny, which tar­get is to cre­ate pro­ducts; he is not a mere desi­gner. That‘s why he works direc­tly for me. He has more power than any other per­son at Apple, except for myself. The­re is no one at Apple who could tell him what to do or tell him off. This is how I orga­ni­zed it.” (sour­ce: Wal­ter Isa­ac­son. „Ste­ve Jobs”. iBooks.)

Inspi­ra­tion or plagiarism?

Is it bad that Jona­than Ive and Ste­ve Jobs were inspi­red by good, func­tio­nal design? When does inspi­ra­tion turn into pla­gia­rism? It seems that as long as the desi­gner (of the first pro­duct) is fine with using his or her idea, then eve­ry­thing is OK. If the inspi­ra­tion con­si­sts of a skil­ful­ly pro­ces­sed and enhan­ced form that intro­du­ces a new quali­ty to the mar­ket, it means that some­thing new was inven­ted. Some­thing that, in such a con­text, is not plagiarism.

Apple pro­ducts inde­ed set new trends and quali­ty. This brand has taken the world by storm due to its func­tio­na­li­ty as well as uni­ver­sal design. The pro­ducts featu­re inno­va­ti­ve sha­pes, func­tio­na­li­ty, and sur­pri­sing technology.

What we can real­ly ask our­se­lves is: After Jobs‘ death, won‘t Jona­than Ive distan­ce him­self from the Apple design? Won‘t he lean towards the func­tio­nal and ter­se sty­le of Rams? Will he aban­don immor­tal rules of good design, in order to achie­ve glo­ry and cre­ate some­thing extra­or­di­na­ry? It seems that over the past two years, Ive has aban­do­ned the clas­sic pat­tern stan­dards of Apple. He added colors to the pro­ducts, which is con­tra­dic­to­ry to the prin­ci­ple of scar­ci­ty and mode­sty (look below: 10 prin­ci­ples for good design). He also modi­fied forms and sha­pes. Howe­ver, was it a good cho­ice? Will the clients accept and enjoy the chan­ges? The­se questions will be answe­red in the cour­se of time, and the designer‘s talent will be verified.

10 prin­ci­ples for good design.

Die­ter Rams have listed 10 prin­ci­ples for a good design that chan­ged the histo­ry of design. Even after 50 years, they are still up-to-date.

Good design is…

1. inno­va­ti­ve. The tech­no­lo­gy deve­lops at an incre­di­ble pace, allo­wing new oppor­tu­ni­ties for design work. Chan­ces for inno­va­tion are unli­mi­ted. A good design mer­ges inno­va­tion with technology.

2. use­ful. We buy pro­ducts that we want to use. Design sho­uld the­re­fo­re be func­tio­nal and aesthetic.

3. aesthe­tic. Besi­des func­tio­na­li­ty, appe­aran­ce is the most impor­tant featu­re of a pro­duct. The pro­ducts we use on a daily basis have a signi­fi­cant influ­en­ce on our well-being. Only well-manu­fac­tu­red pro­ducts can be beautiful.

4. under­stan­da­ble. A well-desi­gned pro­duct sho­uld have cle­ar­ly spe­ci­fied func­tions, and be intu­iti­ve, under­stan­da­ble, and cle­ar. When using such pro­ducts, the Clients do not need to read the manu­al in order to know which but­ton to push.

5. honest. No fal­se pro­mi­ses. It is not said to be more func­tio­nal or inno­va­ti­ve than it real­ly is.

6. unob­tru­si­ve. A pro­per­ly desi­gned pro­duct sho­uld be neu­tral and restra­ined. After all, most pro­ducts are not works of art – they are tools desi­gned for a par­ti­cu­lar pur­po­se. Tools sho­uld not be conspicuous.

7. long-lasting. It will never go out of fashion or grow old. Good design is neu­tral – a pro­duct can be used for many years and will never lose its style.

8. tho­ro­ugh down to the last deta­il. Pre­ci­sion is one of the most impor­tant featu­res of good design. No pro­duct can be per­fect witho­ut pre­ci­sion. More­over, caring for deta­ils is caring for the customer.

9. envi­ron­men­tal­ly frien­dly. The design makes an impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion to the pre­se­rva­tion of the envi­ron­ment. The manu­fac­tu­rers must take respon­si­bi­li­ty for the­ir work and save natu­ral resources

10. Good design is as lit­tle design as possi­ble. Sim­pli­ci­ty is the highest vir­tue. As Rams would put it “Weni­ger, aber bes­ser” – less, but bet­ter. Pro­ducts sho­uld not be bur­de­ned with non-essen­tial func­tions and embellishments.