The Essence of Things: Design and the Art of Reduction

Taking the familiar minimalist slogan of “less is more” as its starting point, Vitra Design Museum’s exhibition The Essence of Things: Design and the Art of Reduction celebrates a selection of products for their enduring design and adherence to the principle of perfect simplicity.

The exhibition - which is only on for another week (until 19 September) - is divided into four categories covering manufacture, function, aesthetics and ethics. From Michael Thonet’s No. 14 Bentwood Chair (1859) – the design of which has remained virtually unchanged for 150 years: consisting of just six pieces of wood, ten screws and two nuts - to more recent classics like Jonathan Ive’s iPod (2001), the products on display emphasise the influence of reductionism on modern design.

Those on a budget will be pleased to see the Tata Nano, which is billed as the world’s cheapest car and will cost just £1,300 when it is produced in India later this year. The compact vehicle is made of only the bare essentials for it to be safe (although manufactured by a team of 500 engineers).

The exhibition as a whole challenges technological, economical and ethical approaches and shows that an essentially simple design results in a product that is much more than the sum of its parts.

By Alex Pearlman