Minimalist Design Guidelines

Dieter Rams 10 Commandments of Design (via Vitsoe):

1. Good design is innovative
   
2. Good design makes a product useful
   
3. Good design is aesthetic
   
4. Good design helps a product to be understood
   
5. Good design is unobtrusive
   
6. Good design is honest
   
7. Good design is durable
   
8. Good design is consistent to the last detail
   
9. Good design is concerned with the environment
   
10. Good design is as little design as possible
    

And since the only way to one-up a minimalist is to offer one less rule in guiding design, MUJI:, the brandless brand, comes through.

1. Because there is complexity in purity.
   
2. Elegance in plainness.
   
3. Intricacy in streamlining.
   
4. Richness in reduction.
   
5. Depth in minimalism.
   
6. Surprise in uniformity.
   
7. Innovation in re-use.
   
8. Cool in the avoidance of cool.
   
9. And there is true sophistication in simplicity.
   

Which is exceedingly reminiscent of the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu:

Thirty spokes meet at a nave;
Because of the hole we may use the wheel.
Clay is moulded into a vessel;
Because of the hollow we may use the cup.
Walls are built around a hearth;
Because of the doors we may use the house.
Thus tools come from what exists,
But use from what does not.