Response #3 Dieter Rams

Response #3
Dieter Rams Interview

Initially, I found the interview with Dieter Rams essentially worthless. Most of the time was spent giving him a superficial celebrity treatment, with a priority concerning his everyday matters above inquiring about his creative process as designer and artist. However, I find it interesting that in many ways Rams’ casual demeanor appears to be a charming and unique characteristic that shows in his work. So ironically, in some ways I found the interview to be appropriate in that it provided insight as to how his personality might be an important aspect in the process of his creative engine. This simultaneity regarding the informal/formal for design is one I find especially refreshing. I admire Dieter Rams’ creative process because I feel that he had found a balance for his affection for design as a technique under the strict purpose to accommodate visual presentation, in addition to his tendency to create functionality under experimental means. Most of all, Rams has been able to seamlessly incorporate a “lightness” about all of his work. For instance, his turntable is so perfectly designed and timely. It is esthetically beautiful, instead of gaudy and demanding. More importantly though, it is charismatic because it feels so convenient and effective…like a good joke that doesn’t take long to tell. Rams’ ability to execute work in such a way must somehow be rooted in his rejection of the visually bombastic. His designs are silently clever, rather than loud.
The brief moment spent in class on the array of slides comparing Jonathon Ive’s designs for Apple with Dieter Rams’ work was immense for me. Call it a homage if you like, but I had absolutely no idea that Ive had essentially copied all of those designs. It seems so obvious now too, everything about Apple’s commercial presentation is aiming to be as pithy and immaculate as Dieter Rams. I feel that Apple does not quite pull it off though. Apple’s attempt comes across more as painstaking than seamless, in some instances.