Dieter Rams had ten principles of good design.
I keep coming back to the last one.
Less, but better. Not less as a starting point. Less as a conclusion. What remains after everything non-essential has been removed. It sounds straightforward. It isn’t.
The hardest thing in design is not adding. Anyone can add. You add when you’re unsure. You add to justify the cost, to signal effort, to give the eye something to land on.
Removing requires a different kind of confidence. The confidence that what remains is enough. That it will be understood without explanation.
Disappearing is not the same as being nothing.
When I was designing the RIB system, the brief was simple. A modular desk organiser. Matte finish. Quiet in a room. The kind of object that disappears once it’s placed.
But disappearing is not the same as being nothing.
The dish has a shallow slope so your hand finds what’s inside without searching.
The note holder has an exposed corner so peeling a sticky note doesn’t require thought.
The cup has a chamfered internal edge because a hard right angle collects dust and is harder to wipe clean.
The card slot is sized to 0.76mm because a loose fit means cards shift, and a tight fit means you hesitate before using it.
None of these details are visible when the system is sitting on your desk.
That is exactly the point.
Rams wasn’t talking about aesthetics. He was talking about respect. The designer’s job is to make as many decisions as possible in advance, so the person living with the object never has to.
Less, but better. Not as a starting point. As a conclusion you earn.
The object should just work. Quietly, without asking anything of you.
