The design principles of ASK The FOX are derived from this promise. They are "simple, unique, and safe" and follow the ten design rules of founder Kerstin Bante. We deliberately avoid short-lived effects and everything that is trendy, spectacular, loud, or intrusive. "Limit yourself to the essentials, but preserve the poetry," as stated in Wabi-Sabi, an aesthetic concept originating from Japan and closely linked to Zen Buddhism. Our poetry is safety. Your good feeling.
We are proud that our young company has been honored with the iF Design Award and the Silver Lining Award from the creative society Hamburg for this.

“The fundamental considerations that guide my work as a designer and that form the basis of my design philosophy are aligned with ten rules,” explains Kerstin Bante, founder of ASK THE FOX.

Good design is inventive

The possibilities for invention are far from exhausted. Technological development repeatedly offers new starting points for inventive design concepts. Inventive design always arises in connection with inventive technology and is never an end in itself.

2. Good design makes a product useful

One buys a product to use it. It should fulfill certain primary functions and also psychological and aesthetic functions. Good design optimizes usefulness and disregards everything that does not serve or even opposes this goal.

3. Good design is beautiful

The aesthetic quality of a product is an integral aspect of its usefulness. For products used daily shape the personal surroundings and influence well-being. But only what is well made can be beautiful.

4. Good design makes a product understandable

It clearly reveals the material of the product. More than that: it can make the product speak. In the best case, it explains itself.

5. Good design is unobtrusive

Products that fulfill a purpose have the character of tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be neutral, let the products recede, and give people room for self-fulfillment.

6. Good design is honest

It does not make a product appear more inventive, powerful, or valuable than it really is. It does not try to manipulate the buyer with promises it cannot keep.

7. Good design is long-lasting

It avoids being fashionable and therefore never seems outdated. In clear contrast to short-lived fashion design, it endures for many years even in today’s throwaway society.

8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail

Nothing may be left to whim or chance. Thoroughness and precision in design are ultimately an expression of respect for the buyer.

9. Good design is kind to the earth

The design makes an important contribution to preserving the environment. It includes the sparing use of resources as well as the reduction of physical and visual pollution in the product’s life cycle.

10. Good design is as little design as possible

Less design is more, as it focuses on the essential instead of burdening products with the superfluous.