Less and More – The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams

through March 20 '11

Daelim Contemporary Art Museum
Seoul

A major retrospective of pioneering industrial designer Dieter Rams has just opened at Daelim Contemporary Art Museum in Seoul. The show is also part of a three-part exhibition on design leaders that began at Daelim in September entitled 'Three Super Creators'. The first selected designer was Paul Smith and the final will be Juergen Teller. Kim Jung-hee, a curator at the museum, explains the selection of Rams for the title 'Super Creator' simply; "he is an industrial-design legend of the 20th century."

Rams, an architect-turned designer, is best known for his role as head of design at Braun; a distinguished 40 year career in which he created minimal yet distinctive designs for consumer electronics which gone on to inspire product and industrial design in a large way. Today we see his influence across electronics in particular, Jonathan Ive, senior vice president of Industrial Design at Apple, is said to have been enormously influenced by Rams' design philosophy.

The title of the exhibition is taken from Rams' central design principle 'Weniger, aber besser' which translates as 'Less but better', The exhibition itself is narrated by Ram's 'Ten principles of Good Design' which lead the audience through the pieces:

Good design:
is innovative
makes a product useful
is aesthetic
makes a product understandable
is unobtrusive
is honest
is long-lasting
is thorough down to the last detail
is environmentally friendly
is as little design as possible

Rams says “I am absolutely sure that my ten statements are not changed. There is no reason to change. They are still, maybe more important than 20 years ago, especially for students.” He also has a message for the newest batch of designers creating products of tomorrow;

“Always go to the world with eyes wide open. We have lots of things today that we really don’t need. We don’t need such a lot of things, we need more clear things. The main objective of the industrial design of the future should fulfill not only one function but many.”

Dieter Rams retired from Braun in 1997 and received the Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2007 for achievements in the area of design.

This is the latest stop for the exhibition, which has actually been touring the world since 2008, previously stopping in Osaka, Tokyo, London and Frankfurt. From Seoul, it heads to San Francisco in April.

Daelim Contemporary Art Museum

ABR 21 signal radio, 1978

HLD Hairdryer, 1969

SK4 radio- audio combination, 1956

Audio Transistor, 1959

The 620 Chair Series