What constitutes good design?
I do not have a background in arts or design, so I first needed to answer the question what good design is. Therefore, I looked at the work of two famous industrial designers, whose names I have often come across before.
1. Dieter Rams
Arguably one of the most iconic product designers, Dieter Rams, once expressed his notion of good design in his now famous ten commandments. Rams was driven by the idea of what he called sustainable design; timeless design that would endure volatilities of fashion and prevail through functionality. The teapot has a relatively simple function: (a) steeping tea leaves or a herbal mix in boiling or near-boiling water (b) serve the restulting infusion. Hence, I concluded that the tea pots design should reflect this simplicity. I therefore decided to follow Rams’ commandments throughout my design process.
According to Rams, good design…
According to Rams, good design…
- Is innovative
- Makes a product useful
- Is aesthetic
- Makes a product understandable
- Is unobtrusive
- Is honest
- Is long-lasting
- Is thorough down to the last detail
- Is environmentally friendly
- Is as little design as possible
"Weniger, aber besser!" - (German: "Less but better!") What now sounds like a design truism supposedly sounded revolutionary when Rams became Chief Design Officer at Braun in the 1960s...
2. Jonathan Ive
Jonathan Ive, was the first designer to actually get me thinking about design. Ive is Senior Vice President of Design at Apple Inc. He is responsible for the design of the iMac, Powerbook + MacBook Pro series, the iPod, iPad, and iPhone (including the new iOS7).
I was a bit too young, when the first iPod came out, to experience the hype it created. However, I remember when the first iPhone came out and how everyone talked about how the design of the iPhone will change the whole business. And in fact, it did. But furthermore, it also changed the way we communicate, the way we travel, the way we take pictures and videos, the way we make notes, the way we check the time, the way we listen to music, etc. etc.
I was a bit too young, when the first iPod came out, to experience the hype it created. However, I remember when the first iPhone came out and how everyone talked about how the design of the iPhone will change the whole business. And in fact, it did. But furthermore, it also changed the way we communicate, the way we travel, the way we take pictures and videos, the way we make notes, the way we check the time, the way we listen to music, etc. etc.
Nonetheless, although the functionality of the Apple products are extremely diverse. The designs are functionally very clean. Still they are aesthetically pleasing and extremely popular. Whenever one listens to an Apple advert or to people discussing the new iPhone the one adjective that is used the most is "simple".
Apple Inc. products and teapots are very similar. They are both vessels. The iPhone experience is only secondarily about the physical phone itself, but primarily about the software it stores. The tea experience is only secondarily about the physical tea set itself, but primarily about the tea it contains. I conclude, tea ware should be designed around the tea that it is supposed to contain (which is Rare Tea Co. tea in my case).
To annoy every existentialist out there: essence precedes existence, when it comes to tea pots.
Apple Inc. products and teapots are very similar. They are both vessels. The iPhone experience is only secondarily about the physical phone itself, but primarily about the software it stores. The tea experience is only secondarily about the physical tea set itself, but primarily about the tea it contains. I conclude, tea ware should be designed around the tea that it is supposed to contain (which is Rare Tea Co. tea in my case).
To annoy every existentialist out there: essence precedes existence, when it comes to tea pots.
Designs I like
Flicking through designs that I like (see slideshow above), I realised that many objects that I find beautifully designed adhere to Rams' ten rules and minimalist design principles. This gives me the confidence that I can successfully apply them to tea pots.
My Design Maxims
I tried to synthesise what I learned into my own set of design principles:
- good design should be beautiful: my teapot should be aesthetically pleasing
- good design should be useful: my teapot should serve its function of serving tea and contribute to the tea experience
- good design should be sustainable: the teapot should be made from sustainable materials and produced to be long-lasting
- good design should be timeless: to me, this is the result of all of the above; if a design is useful, beautiful and lasts a long time, we can use it forever