Weniger, Aber Besser

Good design is hon­est. Good design is thor­ough to the last detail. Good design is as lit­tle design as pos­si­ble. [Dieter Rams]

There is a brief, but impor­tant list of peo­ple that I would credit for my love of design, art and archi­tec­ture. Indi­vid­u­als who’s guid­ance and men­tor­ship was and is invalu­able: my Oma and Opa, painter and pho­tog­ra­pher, respec­tively; my father, the engi­neer and pho­tog­ra­pher; Pat Dowie, pho­tog­ra­pher and print­maker; and Jacqui McFar­land, inte­rior and graphic designer. The rest, whom I’ve only known in books, pho­tographs, and occa­sional con­sumer pur­chases include John Paw­son, Jonathan Ive, and Dieter Rams. These indi­vid­u­als, seen and unseen, have col­lec­tively devel­oped my aes­thetic world­view, and I carry them with me every day.

All the more excit­ing then that Rams and Ive, among many oth­ers, are included in the list of per­son­al­i­ties fea­tured in Gary Hustwit’s lat­est film, Objec­ti­fied, which debuted at SXSW, a cou­ple weeks ago. I eagerly antic­i­pate an announce­ment of a screen­ing here in Calgary.