In recent years, an increasing number of people have embraced a love and commitment to minimalism, especially when it comes to designing their own homes. How much curve, color, and texture does good design need? And how little? “As little design as possible” is one of the most well-known principles in product design over the past decades. It’s also a phrase that serves as a guiding thread through the exhibition at the Deutsches Design Museum, which runs until 14.03.2026 and is dedicated to one of the most influential designers of the 20th and 21st centuries: Dieter Rams. The furniture is evenly spaced throughout the room, and the curatorial concept sits somewhere between a mid-sized furniture store and the painfully familiar, long-outdated aesthetics of office spaces. And it works. The master of understated functionality, the wunderkind of clean lines, the muse of tech designers, and the fetish of architecture students. It only makes sense that someone like Rafael Horzon, whose entire brand is built on the foundation of extremely simple shelving, would bring this design to his museum. The exhibition guides visitors through all of Rams’ key phases and showcases works for Braun and Vitsœ that have made their mark on international design history. This comprehensive overview is made possible through collaboration with the world’s largest private collection of Dieter Rams’ work and Rams expert Dr. Bujar Aruqai.
Many of the pieces on display are being exhibited in Berlin for the first time. The front room is dominated by the iconic Vitsœ 606 shelving system in every conceivable variation and finish, with Horzon casually placing his own publications here and there. Scattered among them are seating options — you want to try them out, and you may. In the back room, primarily dedicated to the electronics side of Rams’ industrial design, two men sit in front of a Rams turntable, listening to John Lee Hooker and discussing their design god. They clearly have more to say about him than what can be summed up in his ten Spartan principles. So much has already been written, said, and discussed about Rams. What can an exhibition still give us? Probably something quite unspectacular: that good design doesn’t need an explanation. Even on the carpet of the Deutsches Design Museum, its warm grey so reminiscent of the slushy snow we track onto our doormats, Rams works. “Well done, Dieter,” I think, and “Go see this exhibition,” I write. As little design as possible has rarely done any harm.
Text: Inga Krumme / Photos: Deutsches Design Museum
Deutsches Design Museum, Uhlandstr.185, 10623 Berlin–Charlottenburg; map
Dieter Rams Exhibition until 14.03.2026
@deutschesdesignmuseum
