dieter rams in unreleased video footage from 2000, treasures on tape

[@modfus]

I certainly would agree (to a point) that industrially produced consumer products (especially if they are made in vast numbers) should perform their intended function without being compromised by an unrestrained or superfluous form. However, we can see with brands like Alessi or Cassina that there is room for experimentation and expressiveness in industrial design. Of course, our postmodern culture (together with highly complex manufacturing technology) has entirely overturned and expanded the traditional role of Modern industrial design. Important postmodernists like Alessandro Mendini and Andrea Branzi created objects that expressed cultural and social values - physical function was not always their primary concern. They were little academic manifestos realized as design objects. The whole idea that objects must be rigorously functional has only been around for just over 100 years. History shows us that the objects we create and live with are important barometers of cultural/societal shifts over time ....and their primary functionality is often the least interesting aspect of their conception. Even Dieter Rams can't escape this fact - his objects are now "design classics" (a very postmodern concept in itself) that are admired and collected for their aesthetic quality - not so much for their (obsolete) technology or primary functional purpose - indeed, "functionality" itself became an expressive aesthetic principle in the earliest years of the 20th century.

[@sorenjunkers3834]

It seems that that you understand Rams philosophy in a dogmatic way, which he always strictly speaks out against. If not then there is no contradiction.

[@modfus]

@@sorenjunkers3834 Rams is pretty dogmatic. I note that some of his later work for Braun did have a slightly more "expressive" character - maybe he was quietly influenced by his good friend Ettore Sottsass.

[@sorenjunkers3834]

@@modfus how is is work dogmatic?

[@ThomasSeyler]

less is more space > ARCseyler