Rams
Titles & Interstitial

Studio: Trollbäck+Company
Role: Chief Creative Officer

For Gary Hustwit’s 2018 documentary portrait of Dieter Rams, one of the world’s most influential designers, we created opening titles and an interstitial sequence that visually embody Rams’ guiding principles of simplicity, honesty, and restraint.

Hustwit’s film seeks to illuminate Dieter Rams’ perspective on consumerism, sustainability, and the future of design.

Rams begins with a purely editorial sequence combining photography, live action, and minimal typography set to an intensely minimalist composition by Brian Eno. The opening titles frame Dieter within his home studio, establishing an intimacy that counters his legendary status. We worked closely with Hustwit and his creative team from initial concept to final execution, continually simplifying, discarding, and streamlining the title sequence to honor Rams’ iconic style.

View the full case study at Trollbäck+Company.

Full film info on Gary Hustwit’s website.

In the 1970’s, Rams became increasingly concerned by the state of the world, describing it as “an impenetrable confusion of forms, colors, and noises.”

In response, he wrote the “Ten Principles for Good Design” — a list of rules many designers still live by today. Part of our assignment was to visualize and animate an interstitial segment voiced by the designer himself, describing each rule and its meaning.

The animated segment features some of Rams’ most iconic designs throughout history, as well as some lesser-known, rare products Hustwit’s team found and shot at the Vitsoe store in New York City. Repeated frames and parallax motion creatively guide viewers rule-by-rule through the sequence, all of which maintain the same “less is more” design philosophy established in the main titles.