"Das gewöhnliche Design" (The ordinary Design) is a hidden classic of german design history, something the vinyl era would have called a B-side hit. As early as 1976 a group of students and young professors at the Faculty of Design at the University of Applied Sciences in Darmstadt questioned the way design objects were generally perceived, talked and written about. Frustrated by the contrast of their self-perception as comprehensive designers and the prospect to have future careers as mere product stylists, they were looking for an alternative understanding of what constitutes good design. The group led by Friedrich Friedl and Gerd Ohlhauser started to collect ordinary things such as bottle openers, air pumps or bus timetables. In an ad-hoc approach these objects, all from anonymous authors, where exhibited at the faculty under the title "The ordinary Design". This show, which presented only "boring" everyday commodities, surprisingly received national attention and discussions flared up in the design press. In a comical manner the young designers had used means of traditional exhibition design like velvet covered pedestals, usually reserved for "high art".

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