Form Follows Minimalism

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Rams consistently followed 10 principles for good design:

• Good design is innovative.

• Good design makes a product useful.

• Good design is aesthetic.

• Good design helps us to understand a product.

• Good design is unobtrusive.

• Good design is honest.

• Good design is durable.

• Good design is consequent to the last detail.

• Good design is concerned with the environment.

• Good design is as little design as possible.

Comparisons can be drawn from Rams’ work at the Braun company and the current designs that are being produced by Jonathan Ives at Apple today. The designs are unanimously shaped around the function of the product creating an honest design with no superfluous elements. It is easy to understand why some people see Apple’s products as an extension or interpretation of Rams’ work at Braun.

The Braun Atelier TV and the iMac 24

The iMac is a very minimalist design, with virtually no visible buttons when looking at the computer from face on.

Braun T1000 Radio and PowerMac G5

Braun T3 Pocket radio and original iPod

Despite the fact that it may look very simple, Rams has designed the Pocket radio very deliberately, there are 121 holes arranged 11 by 11. This means that there are two central lines running vertically and horizontally, with 5 rows either side, this gives the product a very clean and refined aesthetic. It is easy to see how the T3 Pocket radio could have inspired the design of the 1st generation iPods, there is a direct link between the central control wheel and the dimensions of the product.

Direct links can be observed in the perforated aluminium surfaces

Braun L60 sound system and Apple iPod Hi-Fi

Braun LE1 speaker and Apple iMac

Credited to Louis Sullivan, ‘Form follows……’ is actually commonly quoted incorrectly, the original statement is ‘form ever follows function’ however, it remains to be one of the most important design principles, it is unescapable and carries as much weight in graphic design as in architecture and industrial design. What comparison can be made between this and the phrase ‘form follows minimalism’?

The phrase ‘Form follows function’ can be interpreted in different ways, descriptive – by which beauty is born from the purity of function. Implying that forms derived from function are beautiful because they possess a certain integrity, their beauty emanates from within. A good example of this is passenger jets, they are almost completely bereft of any ornamentation, yet their aerodynamic lines perfectly represent the clean expression of their function.

However, it is important to recognise that the function, by itself, is not the design, which leads to another interpretation of the phrase; prescriptive – that the primary objective of design should be establishing functionality, considering aesthetics afterwards.

With the rapid advances in technological development, however, increasingly less and less relation to their function. A prime example of this is Apple’s new iPod Shuffle, highlighting how form is becoming dislocated from function. Traditional design adhering to form follows function allowed the user to have some sort of idea of how to use a product by looking at it. Inversely, the design of the Shuffle leaves very few clues as to its purpose, and is seen to be a subtle hint from Apple’s designers on the expiry of form follows function. Instead the design relies on user interface, if this is designed well, then the premise is that the user will be able to use the product intuitively.

Software designer, John Maeda believes that our current “awkward mechanical dance” computers will be exchanged for a more intuitive approach. “It will need to be more improvisational,” he said. “There will be a need for more subtlety and grayness.”

Virtuous design must be intuitive, which is defined in the dictionary as ‘when users understand behaviour and effect without use of reason, experimentation, assistance, or special training.’ There is a direct link between minimalist design and a product being intuitive, removing the superfluous elements of a design leads to developing an intuitive product which is arguably the most crucial element of a design.

Applying functional principles to a design is generally a more objective process than applying aesthetic principles. A functionally objective process results in designs that are eternal but may be perceived to be basic and boring.

Function, however, is largely the challenge of a design, it is the foundation of a design and largely dictates whether it is good or bad. Function drives design, therefore, removing the function removes the foundations of a design, it equates to a car with no motor. Although the aesthetic of the car may prove to be perfect it serves no function.

Minimalism is increasingly ever present in graphic design, the use of sans serif fonts and using the whitespace to accentuate the content on the page. A minimalist design is also essential to developing an intuitive website, that is simple and easily navigable. This means that users are not overwhelmed with information and can follow the flow of the website without difficulty.

As technology rapidly develops our resources are inversely decreasing, which is a fact that was recognised by Dieter Rams even in 1976 in a speech he delivered in New York titled ‘Design by Vitsœ’, where he highlighted an “increasing and irreversible shortage of natural resources”. Rams stated that virtuous design could only be born from a complete understanding of people and reached out to designers asking them to take more care for the environment that we live in, questioning how we could continue to exist on a planet with finite resources in such a disposable society. “I imagine our current situation will cause future generations to shudder at the thoughtlessness in the way in which we today fill our homes, our cities and our landscape with a chaos of assorted junk.”

Sustainability

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