Dieter Rams: As Little Design As Possible

Så er den her: I juli sender forlaget Phaidon den definitive guide til Dieter Rams' arbejde og liv på gaden. Bogen får titlen As Little Design As Possible: The Work of Dieter Rams", og gennemgår på 240 sider Dieter Rams' virke som en af de største produktdesignere nogensinde.

Bogen rummer mange billeder, illustrationer og blueprints, der ikke tidligere har været vist, ligesom Phaidon også har fået et unikt kig ind i Dieter Rams' personlige arkiver. Og som en ekstra appelsin i turbanen har ingen andre end Apples Senior Vice President of Design, Jonathan Ive, skrevet forordet.

Få et kig i bogen på de følgende sider og læs uddrag fra et interview med Rams, som New York Times lavede for nylig.

NYTimes: What’s an average day for you?

Dieter Rams: I am not an early bird. I go to bed normally between midnight and 1 o’clock, so it is understandable that I cannot be an early bird. I wake up around 9 o’clock. Even when I was with Braun, and I was responsible for a lot of people, if they had meetings, I had to be there at 8 or the latest 9. But if there were no meetings, I always tried not to start before 9 o’clock.

NYTimes: Are you enjoying New York?

Dieter Rams: I like to be in New York. Le Corbusier described it in the 1930s as a “wonderful catastrophe.” It is still a wonderful catastrophe, but inspiring. One thing I am crazy about is the seafood — the littleneck clams. I like them very much, at that place in Grand Central Station.

NYTimes: Are you really retired? You don’t seem like the retiring type.

Dieter Rams: Yes. I sit, I think, I make some drawings. As a designer, you cannot retire totally. I have some new things coming, but it’s a question of investigation and some money.

NYTimes: How did you meet your wife?

Dieter Rams: She’s a photographer. I was falling in love with a photographer who was a friend of hers. They studied together. Then she, the first, decided to marry another man, and leave me with her friend.

So it happened that we lived together a long time without being married; we married after 10 years. We don’t have children. We had a cat — she died — and now we can’t decide if we should get a new one. She was a very special cat.

NYTimes: Are you still trying to improve other things?

Dieter Rams; Most of the things are done already — you can’t make it better. Look at chairs: there are enough chairs. There are bad chairs, some good ones, mostly bad ones. But there are, even with a chair, possibilities to make it more comfortable or, from the economic point, you can make it cheaper, save some material or you can try new materials.