The works below come from architecture, philosophy, and industrial design. Each is a long-term solution to its problem. They are references to discipline.
Adolf Loos. Ornament and Crime, 1910. An essay arguing that ornament made objects obsolete within three years and the modern ornamentalist was a cultural laggard. It established the case that undecorated objects endure where decorated ones date.
Shaker design. A religious community's furniture, architecture, and daily life. Objects are austere, built for work rather than comfort, organized by the principle that every object has a designated place. Daily routines are organized to the same discipline.
Vitsoe. An English furniture company that has manufactured the same three products in-house for over sixty years. Designed by Dieter Rams. The company operates by Rams's Ten Principles for Good Design, summarized in the tenth: less, but better.
John Pawson. Minimum, 1996. An architecture defined by absence. Bare walls, single materials carried across surfaces, no visible hardware. The principle: perfection is reached when nothing more can be subtracted.
Levi's 501. The design solved its problem so well that it became a standard, then an industry, then a global symbol of American style. Produced continuously for over 150 years. An example of a design that earned immunity to change.