minimalistic

Design History: Dieter Rams - Less But Better

abduzeedo — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 12:10:25 +0000

Pablo Picasso once said "Good Artists Copy Great Artists Steal" then Steve Jobs mention that in one interview long ago. We all know that Apple products are the best out there, there's no doubt about it, and the main reason about that is because they have the best design. Jonhathan Ive, the chief industrial designer at Apple is a fantastic designer but it's always good to know what and who inspired him to come up with the Apple product designs. We might think that they are pretty unique and new but when we look at Dieter Rams the Pablo Picasso's quote makes even more sense.

About Dieter Rams (Wikipedia)

Dieter Rams (born May 20, 1932 in Wiesbaden, Hesse) is a German industrial designer closely associated with the consumer products company Braun and the Functionalist school of industrial design.

Rams studied architecture at the Werkkunstschule Wiesbaden as well as learning carpentry from 1943 to 1957. After working for the architect Otto Apel between 1953 and 1955 he joined the electronic devices manufacturer Braun where he became chief of design in 1961, a position he kept until 1995.

Rams once explained his design approach in the phrase "Weniger, aber besser" which freely translates as "Less, but better". Rams and his staff designed many memorable products for Braun including the famous SK-4 record player and the high-quality 'D'-series (D45, D46) of 35 mm film slide projectors. He is also known for designing the 606 Universal Shelving System by Vitsœ in 1960.

Rams' ten principles to "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

Video About Dieter Rams

Works

About the author

Abduzeedo is a blog about design. There are all sorts of articles for those who want to look for inspiration. Also you will find very useful tutorials for the most used applications out there, with a special selection of Photoshop Tutorials and Illustrator Tutorials. You can get in follow us via Twitter at @abduzeedo

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Stylish White Package Design Inspiration

abduzeedo — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 03:00:42 +0000

Last year we published an article featuring some beautiful dark package designs, it was the Ultimate Dark Package Design Inspiration. Following the same idea in this post we will feature only white package designs, but as usual, we tried to look for very stylish examples to really inspire you.

For more articles and inspiration on packaging design we highly recommend that you visit and subscribe to Lovely Package website, it is a fantastic resource for this type of design, definitely worth it, but be careful, you will spend hours over there :)

Backyard Vineyards

Backyard Vineyards is named so due to it’s close proximity to metro Vancouver, BC. Fabien Barrel brought this design to life with beautiful illustrations which interact with the type and other elements on the label. Check out the shears trimming the UPC on the back.

Currenna

“The hair care products were for anti-aging so the idea of twisting and reversing time or counter clockwise was developed for the bottles and the logo. It would not be obvious to the consumer but having a theory behind the simple design was well received”

Apple iPad

Eighthirty

“Eighthirty source organic beans from sustainable farms, then combine these with dedication to deliver the perfect coffee every time. Our passion is passed on in every cup to customers who care about great coffee as much as we do. Eighthirty delivers – simply good coffee.”

Swiss & Global

“We designed this package for our client Swiss & Global Asset Management. They are dedicated asset managers in Switzerland and worldwide and every year they make a little Easter present for their clients. They usually send some particular sweets from Sicily and we usually create a very simple package for them. On October 2009 they changed their company name – formerly Julius Baer Asset Management – so they decided to use the gift to communicate to their clients that the company name changed, but not the quality of their service. We decided to change the package to support this really important concept. We used a very beautiful kind of paper, Arjowiggins Skin, and a very refined illustration. All printed in Pantone Silver. We also used a “more vertical” form so that you think – also because of the illustration – that you’ll can find a chocolate egg inside. But when you open the package you find a card saying you ‘E’ cambiata la forma, non la sostanza’ (The form has changed, not the substance).”

Mulher

“This is a gift we created for our female clients for the International Women’s Day. The package was created to conceal a watch and look like a small bag, since we know girls love to shop. The copy goes like this: “Woman, a small gift for you who present us everyday”

Student Work – Dmitri Moruz

“Brief is to design the packaging for a new line of organic loose teas (not a live project, tea company is Ringtons tea). Things to consider were: to have packaging eco friendly, to communicate the feel of it being exclusive, limited loose tea; try to appeal to young professionals. Solution is incorporating die-cut technique, which brings both: exclusiveness and it is saving on ink, while paper used for the outer layer is made of recycling materials.”

Good Day

“Packaging design for a new men’s skin care line with a crisp English feel. Using typography as an identifier, we created an easy way to find the right products for your skin type.”

Student Work – Meeta Panesar

“The design is inspired by the colors and designs of Joseph Albers and the Op Art movement. The usage of the rectangular elements reflects Alber’s “Homage to the Square,” a series of paintings begun in 1949.”

The “it” Bar

Country: United States | Font: ITC Avant Garde Gothic

The “it Bar from Dylan’s Candy Bar comes beautifully packaged in a white textured box with blind embossing, foil stamp and tip-on label.

Nexus One

Feez

A range of milk-based drinks with a take-away size in 4 flavours; Strawberry, Blackberry, Blueberry and Raspberry. The milk adorns the packaging, the tasty fruit is brought out on the milk and on the opening that enables the drinking.

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Minimalistic Poster Design in Photoshop

abduzeedo — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:27:23 +0000

It's the end of the year and for the last tutorial of 2009 I will show you how to create a poster inspired by the amazing work of Simon Page, especially those beautiful posters for the International Year of Astronomy. I created this design first for the Abduzeedo 3rd Anniversary poster but I changed it a little bit for this Photoshop tutorial.

So I will show you how to create a minimalistic design in Photoshop playing with stock photos, blend modes and filters. We will also use a paper texture to give a nice retro feel to our design.

Step 1

Open Photoshop and create a new document. I'm using for this tutorial 900x1440 pixels for the size. Fill the background layer with black and then go to Edit>Transform>Scale. Resize the background layer like the image below.

Step 2

Go to Layer>Layer Style>Color Overlay. Select brown for the color, the one I used is #37281e

Step 3

After the Color Overlay, select Stroke. Use 4 pixels for the Size, Inside for the Position, Color Dodge for the Blend Mode and White for the Color.

Step 4

Add another layer beneath the brown layer and fill it with beige, the one I used is #edd3aa.

Step 5

Let's import a photo of a ladder. The one I used is courtesy of Shutterstock and you can get it at http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-39923698/stock-photo-ladder-leading-up-t...

Step 6

Select the image layer and go to Image>Adjustments>Hue and Saturation. Reduce the Hue to -170 and leave the other values the same.

Step 7

Still with the image layer selected go to Image>Adjustments>Levels. Increase the black input to 87, the middle input to 0.93. Also for the Output Leves use 0 and 130.

Step 8

Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Hue and Saturation. This adjustment layer has to be on top of the other layers, the ladder and the background. Increase the Lightness to 12.

Step 9

Let's use another stock image, this time of a starfield with a nebula. The one I used is courtesy of Shutterstock and you can get it at http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-1611518/stock-photo-space-heart.html

Step 10

With the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) create a marquee selection of the yellow sky. After that with the stars image selected go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection.

Step 11

Go to Image>Adjustments>Hue and Saturation. Reduce the Hue to 30, the Saturation to 30 and increase the Lightness to 13. Also select Colorize. Use the image below for reference.

Step 12

Now let's add some text. I added 2010 using Helvetica Neue Bold, 107pt using brown (9e7539) for the color. Below the 2010 I added "Happy New Year" using Helvetica Neue Light, 33pt with the same brown. At the bottom of the page I added a quote by Paulo Coelho using Helvetica Neue Regular, 16pt. Use the image below for reference.

Step 13

Add a new layer on top of the others and fill it with white. Then go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects. For the Style select RGB lights and leave the other values the same.

Step 14

Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use 120 pixels for the Radius.

Step 15

Reduce the Opacity of the layer to 30% and also go to Edit>Transform>Rotate. Rotate the image so the red will be at the bottom. After that go to Image>Adjustments>Levels. Increase the Black input to 70.

Step 16

Let's use another stock photo, now a paper texture. Once again the one I used was courtesy of Shutterstock and can be found at http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-20845342/stock-photo-old-yellow-paper-ba...

Step 17

Change the Blend Mode of the paper texture to Multiply. This layer will be on top of the others.

Step 18

Go again to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Hue and Saturation. This adjustment layer will be on top of the other layers. Reduce the Saturation to -32 and increase the Lightness to +28.

Conclusion

In this tutorial we played only with Blend Modes, masks, and basic filters. The idea was to create something minimalistic but beautiful and with a retro feel. It'll also make for a really cool New Year's card!

We, here at Abduzeedo, wish you all a Happy New Year! 2009 was super awesome and we've learned a lot from you guys. Thanks a lot for the great year and let's make this next one even better!

Download the Photoshop File

Click here to download the Photoshop file used for this tutorial

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Minimalist Photography by Anders Lindén

amanda — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:34:18 +0000

After finding a preview of Lindén's work on BOOOOOOOM!, I instantly fell in love and knew this was something I had to share with you guys.

Stockholm-based Anders Lindén's approach to photography is very simple. His photographs all have a slight mysterious vibe to them and a soft dreamy feel. And not to mention I absolutely love his use of low contrast and muted tones. Don't forget to check out his portfolio.

Send me your suggestions for my next post via twitter or facebook. I'd love to hear from you!

About the author

Amanda Macedo is a designer and blogger by passion and profession. Living and working out of her backpack, she can now be found in San Francisco, CA, biking, writing, dancing, and tweeting .

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Web Design: Minimalistic Sites

PauloGabriel — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:31:45 +0000

"Less is more". That's what some people say... and they might be right. Usually, minimalistic sites are really beautiful, and even with few elements, they deliver us their message, and that's just what we need.

Even though we really like checking some cool sites with lots of elements, minimalistic sites tend to be more straight to the point, what give 'em lots of points. Also, these sites look really fancy like that. Anyways, here is my selection on minimalistic sites. Hope you all like it. Cheers! ;)

About the author

Hello, everyone! I'm Paulo Gabriel, designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil, born in 1984. I have worked as a webdesigner since 2006, but websites and blogs have been a hobby for me since 1999. Here in Abduzeedo, I try to bring only the hot stuff for you... and hope that all of you enjoy my posts! For more cool stuff, you may also follow me on Twitter.

minimalistic

Design History: Dieter Rams - Less But Better

About Dieter Rams (Wikipedia)

Rams' ten principles to "good design"

Video About Dieter Rams

Works

Further reading

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Stylish White Package Design Inspiration

Last year we published an article featuring some beautiful dark package designs, it was the Ultimate Dark Package Design Inspiration. Following the same idea in this post we will feature only white package designs, but as usual, we tried to look for very stylish examples to really inspire you.

Backyard Vineyards

Currenna

Apple iPad

Eighthirty

Swiss & Global

Mulher

Student Work – Dmitri Moruz

Good Day

Student Work – Meeta Panesar

The “it” Bar

Nexus One

Feez

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Minimalistic Poster Design in Photoshop

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

Step 7

Step 8

Step 9

Step 10

Step 11

Step 12

Step 13

Step 14

Step 15

Step 16

Step 17

Step 18

Conclusion

Download the Photoshop File

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Minimalist Photography by Anders Lindén

After finding a preview of Lindén's work on BOOOOOOOM!, I instantly fell in love and knew this was something I had to share with you guys.

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Web Design: Minimalistic Sites

"Less is more". That's what some people say... and they might be right. Usually, minimalistic sites are really beautiful, and even with few elements, they deliver us their message, and that's just what we need.

About the author

Sponsored Links: