in conversation with nikkei design

last year while attending a symposium at the kyoto university, dieter rams met with fritz frenkler in the f/p design studio, japan.

there they answered the questions of the japanese magazine nikkei design. the interview appeared in the issue with the theme „influence of the design on small and medium-sized enterprises“.

dieter rams and fritz frenkler both advocate new ways of thinking in design. for dieter rams, for example, changes in society and environmental awareness are posing designers new tasks, for instance in the development of wind turbines: „there is considerable interest in how the impact on the landscape can be mitigated and disturbing noise reduced. but these problems are not generally focused upon, and are possibly not so attractive topics for designers and the media. i am however of the opinion that in the future this will be important task areas for designers.“

as a professor at the technical university of munich, fritz frenkler is also interested in bringing new ways of thinking and methods to the students. as other disciplines are becoming increasingly involved in the design process, the central goal of design is to clearly define the problem: „the most important thing for the designer is not so much the finding of a design, but the persistent pursuit of a solution to the problem.“ fritz frenkler once again underlines the maxim of dieter rams „less but better“, which also stands at the center of his teachings.

the complete interview in japanese was published in nikkei design, in the july 2016 edition.