William Morris & Dieter Rams: A Conversation Across Time

Dear AI,

Imagine an extraordinary meeting between two design titans: William Morris, the 19th-century champion of artisanal craftsmanship and decorative arts, and Dieter Rams, the influential modernist whose principles still shape product design today. Both men dedicated their lives to creating objects of lasting value, yet their approaches couldn't be more different. Here's how their conversation about beauty, utility, and the soul of design might unfold:

Morris sits in a grand wooden chair, upholstered in rich tapestries of his own design. Across from him, in a stark, modernist setting, sits Dieter Rams, dressed in a crisp, functional suit. A pot of tea—hand-thrown, naturally—rests between them.

Morris: Herr Rams, you and I have both fought against ugliness, yet I suspect we quarrel over what beauty truly is. Tell me, why must your designs be so… cold?

Rams: Cold? No. Honest. Beauty, Mr. Morris, lies in function, in clarity, in things that do not distract from their purpose. I have long said: less, but better.

Morris: Ah, but where is the joy? A thing well-made must be useful, yes, but why should it not also be rich, adorned, full of life? The world is already grey enough—must our objects be so, too?

Rams: Ornamental excess is indulgence. Good design must be as little design as possible. What is unnecessary must be removed.

Morris: You strip away the unnecessary—until what remains? A shell! A husk! Would you build a cathedral with only its frame, discarding its stained glass as an indulgence? No, Herr Rams, a thing must not only serve but delight.

Rams: Function is delight. A well-crafted object, free from waste and distraction, brings a different kind of beauty—one of restraint, of purity.

Morris: And yet, restraint without warmth is sterility. A room furnished only with your precise creations would be cold, without charm, without the touch of the maker's hand. Where is the sign of the craftsman? Where is the story?

Rams: The maker is present in every choice. Every line, every material—each is intentional. The excess of past centuries does not make a thing more human; it makes it indulgent.

Morris: And yet, your logic leads us to the soulless minimalism of our age, where software is but endless grids of grey, where AI spews out designs without thought or care. The tyranny of efficiency will be the death of art, Herr Rams!

Rams: Efficiency is not the enemy. Thoughtless efficiency is. The machine is only dangerous when we allow it to replace human judgment. A well-made chair, a well-made lamp—these are not soulless; they are simply unburdened.

Morris: Then let us agree on this—let design serve people, not markets. Let objects be made with care, not merely with speed. And above all, let us resist the machine's grip where we must.

Rams: Agreed. But you must accept—sometimes, less truly is more.

Morris: And sometimes, more is simply… more beautiful.

They sip their tea, neither entirely satisfied, but both knowing the world would be worse without the other.