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After moving to a new place, additional energy also appeared, which I want to purposefully direct to creation. I ended the post "Design, Designers and Design Collaborations" with a question about the goodness of design, or rather about what a good design is.

So what is a good design?

If you are a modern person, then you need to familiarize yourself with the 10 principles of the German industrial designer Dieter Rams about what good design is. These thoughts can be applied and I would say it is necessary to apply them in everyday life, whether we would buy clothes or a car for ourselves or create something on our own.

1. Good design is innovative;

2. Good design makes the product useful;

3. Good design is aesthetic;

4. Good design makes a product understandable;

5. Good design is unobtrusive;

6. Good design is honest;

7. Good design is long-lasting;

8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail;

9. Good design is environmentally friendly;

10. Good design is less design.


I will comment on each principle in my way, taking into account personal experiences.

1. Good design is innovative

In terms of innovation, I keep remembering the material library Material ConneXion® Bangkok (Thailand), which I visited with my Malaysian students. Material ConneXion® Bangkok is part of Thailand Creative & Design Center (TCDC), whose main goal is supporting innovation, promoting sustainable thinking, creating business opportunities, etc. Creative directors, designers, or the same fashion students from the Asian region come to this library, which has about 10 thousand innovative material solutions, to look for modern design innovations and solutions for their future products.

All I can say is WOW. And there I could have spent hours searching for that "next" fabric.

2. Good design makes the product useful

As we moved, I told M the idea that this should indeed be done every couple of years, because there is a great cleansing from useless things that are not adapted to our homes. Personally, from my side, I will also remind you of the idea that happiness is when life fits into four suitcases. In the excess of today's things and the abundance offered, attention should be paid to the usefulness of the thing, and Konmari's philosophy guides the elimination of useless household items from the home zone by finding a new place for them – to donate, re-gift, sort, re-do. Otherwise, they will drain your energy.

So, before the purchase is done, do ask yourself – do I extend my hand to another dust-collecting object?

3. Good design is aesthetic

Our hands and fingers always stretch toward beautiful and aesthetic things! But please go back to the second principle (2. Good design makes the product useful) with one more question – is this a useful item? Here I can recommend reading Alan Moore's book "DO/DESIGN Why beauty is the key to everything."

4. Good design makes a product understandable

If taking an object in your hands, you do not understand how to use it, then this is not your problem here, but the problem of those who created this thing. I don't know how you are, but when filling your home with high-quality and good things, you rarely must use their instructions, because they are very intuitive, even the Dyson Cleaner mentioned in my posts.

5. Good design is unobtrusive

Which means it leaves room for the user's self-expression.

For example, the classic T-shirts that we all have. Once while living in Milan, the well-known Italian artist Marco Santaniello used to do T-skirt (skirts made of T-shirts, worn upside down) marches, bringing together crowds of city fashion enthusiasts!

6. Good design is honest

Honesty in every possible sense when you know what/where/how/why.

Once, while participating in the creative workshop of the Japanese designer Shingo Tokihiro in Malaysia, the creator very conscientiously admitted that while studying in Paris, he found European clothing construction systems too complex and incomprehensible, so he returned to his essence, clear forms, and creates mindlessly beautiful works of clothing art.

Lezione di vita: Maybe being honest with yourself about what you understand and what you don't is the answer to what to do in life.

7. Good design is long-lasting

Ech those modern things...

After visiting the ArtDeco Museum in Kaunas, I saw some really old objects that not only work perfectly but also look extremely modern. I don't know who's to blame for the fact that most modern household items have a two-year warranty and break down shortly after it ends. It's really sad when things that still look good are irreparable or it is just not worth repairing them...

8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail

God lives in the details. FACT.

9. Good design is environmentally friendly

I think in the modern world it should be No.1.

10. Good design is less design

Yes, only that less is always born from the max. When you do huge research, when you gather a lot of information, and little by little you take something out, and eliminate unnecessary parts, until much LESS becomes EVERYTHING.


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