Sublime

The first school is represented by “classic designers,” such as my friends Dieter Rams and Kenji Ekuan, the late Ettore Sottsass, Jr., Mario Bellini, and Jonathan Ives. These designers can run their own studios or be corporate stars. Ten or fifteen years ago, I would have included myself in this group. This school’s approach to design is both logic

Dieter Rams was the lead designer at Braun for many years. He is driven by the idea that almost everything is noise. He believes very few things are essential. His job is to filter through that noise until he gets to the essence. For example, as a young twenty-four-year-old at the company he was asked to collaborate on a record player. The norm at

Dieter Rams.

1. Innovative; it must have creativity


2. Useful


3. Beautiful


4. Easy to use


5. Unobtrusive, modest


6. Honest


7. Timeless ; it won’t become outdated


8. Doesn’t skip over any small details


9. Environmentally friendly and doesn’t waste resources


10. Not overly designed, “less is more”

as part of a 2003 New York Times interview discussing the iPod, Steve drove his point home: Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it [a product] looks like. People think it’s this veneer—that the designers are handed this box and told, “Make it look good!” That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and fe