Ten Principles of Good Event Design

Dieter Rams wrote ten principles for products. Rewritten for rooms, stands and stages.

Dieter Rams wrote ten rules for good products. This essay turns each one into a question for a room, a stand or a stage. You get a ten-line review to run at the concept stage and again before sign-off.

Dieter Rams wrote his ten principles of good design for radios, shelves and calculators. Each one asks a question that a room, a stand or a stage must also answer. Read them as questions, not as a style. Then they make a sharper review checklist before sign-off than any brand guide.

Ten questions, not ten rules

Rams joined Braun in 1955. He has worked with Vitsœ since it was founded. In the late 1970s, Vitsœ records, he grew worried by "an impenetrable confusion of forms, colours and noises." So he set down what good design should be.

None of the ten names a style. Each one says what an object does for the person who uses it. That is why they carry over to good event design.

Paul Rand made a similar case when he wrote that good design is goodwill. In both views, design is judged by what it does for people.

Innovative, useful, aesthetic

1. Good design is innovative. At an event, innovation means a better answer to the brief. It does not mean novelty for the photo.

A seating layout that turns the main session into a real discussion is innovative. A neon tunnel at the door is just a prop.

2. Good design makes a product useful. A layout is useful when it serves the program first.

Guests need a clear view of the stage. The route to the bar should not cross the service route. Catering needs a path that avoids the crowd. Louis Sullivan's form follows function says the same in three words.

3. Good design is aesthetic. Rams meant beauty that comes from use.

He designed the SK 4 radio-phonograph with Hans Gugelot in 1956. It is beautiful because it is ordered, with a clear lid, plain surfaces and nothing extra. A room earns the same beauty when the stage, the aisles and the lights line up.

Understandable, unobtrusive, honest

4. Good design makes a product understandable. A guest should read the room from the door. They should see the stage, the bar and the way out. Kevin Lynch showed why people get lost in cities, and the same failure happens in venues.

5. Good design is unobtrusive. Rams said useful things are like tools. They should be neutral and restrained.

At an event, the speaker and the talk are the point. The stage, the lights and the graphics should serve them, not fight them.

6. Good design is honest. An honest render shows the real room at its real size and guest count. It does not show a wide view with half the tables gone.

Today the space can be checked on the plan, not just claimed. Test the exits and the flow of the crowd before anyone signs.

Long-lasting and environmentally friendly

7 and 9. Good design is long-lasting and environmentally friendly. Rams designed the 606 Universal Shelving System in 1960. Vitsœ has made it ever since. Parts bought years later still fit.

That is the model for a reusable stand that outlives one show. It is a kit that grows, shrinks and changes shape. It is not a one-off build thrown away after the show.

Events now answer to rules for this. ISO 20121 is the standard for event sustainability management. It came out in 2012 and was first tested at the London Games that year. The Net Zero Carbon Events pledge began in 2021 and was shown at COP26.

So plan the second and third use of each part at the first. Size stage decks to standard panels. Use one connector across the whole wall system. Print graphics on fabric that can be swapped.

Thorough down to the last detail

8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail. Rams asked that nothing be left to chance.

At an event, the detail is where guests really are. It is the cable cover at a door and the step up onto the stage. It is the view from the back row past a camera riser. It is the coat queue at the end of the night.

Guests rarely remember the concept. They remember the trip, the blocked view and the wait for a coat. Draw the details on the plan before the concept is approved. A good concept with bad details is a bad event.

As little design as possible, less but better

10. Good design is as little design as possible. Rams summed it up himself as less, but better. The aim is to keep what is needed and leave out what weighs it down.

At an event, remove what does not serve the program. That might be the second screen nobody watches. It might be the arch that narrows the way in, or the centerpiece that blocks eye contact across the table.

This is not a call for blank rooms. The minimalism debate in booth design shows how "less is more" tips into "less is a bore." Rams cut what was arbitrary, not what was warm.

The ten principles of good design as sign-off questions

Run this review at the concept stage. Run it again at final sign-off.

• 1. Principle: Innovative. Question: Does this answer the brief better, or only look newer? At concept: Name the problem the concept solves. At sign-off: The answer survived value engineering.
• 2. Principle: Useful. Question: Does the layout serve the program first? At concept: Sightlines, flow and service routes on the plan. At sign-off: Walk the plan as a guest, a speaker and a server.
• 3. Principle: Aesthetic. Question: Does the beauty come from order? At concept: Stage, aisles and light aligned. At sign-off: No decoration hiding a fault.
• 4. Principle: Understandable. Question: Can a guest read the room from the door? At concept: Stage, bar and exits visible on entry. At sign-off: Tested with someone new to the plan.
• 5. Principle: Unobtrusive. Question: Does the design serve the speaker and the conversation? At concept: Light and sound levels behind the speaker. At sign-off: Checked from the stage at rehearsal.
• 6. Principle: Honest. Question: Does every render show the real room at real capacity? At concept: Renders at the actual guest count. At sign-off: Renders match the final plan.
• 7. Principle: Long-lasting. Question: Will this be used more than once? At concept: Kit of parts listed. At sign-off: Storage and reuse agreed.
• 8. Principle: Thorough. Question: Are cable runs, steps, sightlines and queues drawn? At concept: Back-row sightlines checked. At sign-off: Detail list walked on site.
• 9. Principle: Environmentally friendly. Question: What waste and carbon does this create? At concept: Materials and transport chosen. At sign-off: Disposal plan set against ISO 20121 or the pledge.
• 10. Principle: As little design as possible. Question: What can go without loss? At concept: One cut per zone. At sign-off: Final cut list signed.

Where your design fails

Score your current design against the ten. The questions it cannot answer show where the next round of work should go.

Rams asked for honest design, and an event plan is only honest when it is to scale. Monet draws to-scale layouts in the real room and re-runs exit and crowd-flow checks after every change, so the design a client signs is one the venue can hold.