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The Future of Design
By Dieter Rams
February 2004
The following is excerpted from a lecture Mr. Rams presented on design
sustainability.
What will design mean in the years to come? What will be the objectives
and criteria for product design? What will be the significance and evaluation
of design? It is essential to think about these realities of tomorrow and
take them into account today.
Our technical-industrial civilization is threatening to destroy our life
on earth. A radical change is inevitable. There is, perhaps, still a chance
that this change could come about through our own conscious efforts rather
than forced upon us by catastrophe. Perhaps, if we are able to achieve this
change, it will not lead to a pauperization of our life, but rather to personal
enrichment. The crisis of our product culture enforces a new design aesthetic.
In the future, products must be judged by their contributions to survival.
This contribution is of essential importance. Design is capable of permanently
improving the ecological quality of products. And--even more important--the
design of products must contribute to a lasting reduction in the overall
quantity of produced products.
The objective of product culture in the coming decades will, therefore,
be LESS but BETTER.
Today, an attraction-to-buy aesthetic almost exclusively determines design.
The aesthetic--which also is the incentive for a destructive disposability
of products--has to be replaced by one that supports the parsimonious, long-lasting
use of products.
A changed product culture, however, will not develop by intuition, intention,
or an appeal to intellect. Changes in behavior can only be achieved, if
at all, by changing the structures of the way of life.
An example is the development of closed circulars in connection with consumer
goods, i.e. products remain in the possesion of their producers. One does
not pay for the possesion, but for use and service of it. After having been
used, the product is returned to the producer and reused, serviced, repaired,
or recycled.
This structure will enable a change of behavior--and herewith a change of
design. The most important objective of design then will not be a high attraction-to-buy-impulse,
but rather an optimal, long-lasting value of use.
It is the task of designers, design institutes, and companies to find starting
points for such changes in structure, to do some thinking, and to realize
these changes. They can start with experimental projects that demonstrate
and lead to new ways.
The responsibility of industrial design, as well as of architecture and
communication design, is so important because its effect-possibilities are
so huge. These designers create our human world, our life of buildings,
personal environment, products, and communication.
This human world of life presents itself in many respects. In too many respects,
it is ugly and stupid, strength-absorbing, enervating, stressful, demoralizing,
and disturbing: an artificial environment that is really not worthy of so
many resources being wasted, poisoned, and destroyed.
Reflective and creative acts are never isolated. Different creative forces
play important roles in the design processes and the public handling of
design. A variety of topics and situations affect a design procedure, including
technology, communication, transport and traffic, production, ecology, and
economy.
Good design is--as much as possible--little design: a return to the genuine,
to simplicity. Good design is not obtrusive, as well-designed products are
as neutral as possible. Such products leave human beings room for their
own personalities.
Less is more --Mies van der Rohe
Less but better --Dieter Rams
»
Dieter Rams's "The Art of Living" essay
»
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