Dieter Rams Proves Simplicity Is Still the Hardest Thing to Design

At 94, Dieter Rams remains one of design’s most quietly influential figures. His work at Braun helped establish a language defined not by spectacle, but by usefulness, clarity and restraint. For Rams, “less, but better” was never an aesthetic formula. It was an attitude shaped by questioning whether an object was necessary and how people would actually use it. Now, the Dieter and Ingeborg Rams Foundation is preserving the drawings, photographs and conversations behind that thinking, ensuring an approach that influenced generations of designers remains as useful as the objects themselves.