BDS 101 #2

Objectified is a documentary about our products and who or what lies behind them. It is the second installment of  three-part series on design by Gary Hustwit. The film has no narrator but weaves its narrative through short comments of thought from designers from around the world. While not all of these designers are well known, several are staples of the design community: Eames, Dieter Rams, David Kelly, Chris Bangle. Each of the designers gives the viewer insight about their ideas on design. By hearing a variety of designer thoughts, each one's individual design process and beliefs begins to appear. My criticism of the film is the lack a of unified message about design. Some of it just the ramblings of designers about the most ridiculous things; the Bouroullec brothers ranblings ("I am like a fox, and he is like a porcupine"),  and the unhelpful comments from Hella Jongerius and Fiona Raby. Perhaps this is partly intentional. The documentary is shot in Cinema Verite style. There is not a narrators voice to guide the film, but instead it as if the viewer has stumbled through the doors of the designer's studio and struck up a conversation. The film documents the creative processes of some of the world’s most influential product designers, and looks at how the things they make impact our lives. Although it features specific products the real topic of the film seems to be what these men and women think about design.

One of the most interesting topics from the film was the ongoing struggle between new product design and the need for sustainability. Karin Rashid remarks, "If the average shelf life of a high-tech object is less than eleven months, why on Earth does anything have to be built to be permanent? It should be all 100% disposable. You know, I think my laptop should be made of cardboard, or my mobile phone could be a piece of cardboard, or it could just be made out of something like sugarcane or bioplastic." One story about being confronted the sustainability of their personal design came from the IDEO team. They described how they had designed a better toothbrush and not even a year later one of them encountered it washed up on the beach: trash.

Every design choice has the potential to change our relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. It’s a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It’s about the designers who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability.  Near the end of the film, Rob Walker (from New York Times Magazine) had an interesting comment about our obsession with buying and designing new objects. Basically, while we all want the latest gadgets, it's only your truly meaningful possessions—the ones that define who you are—that you really care about. For example, if there was a hurricane, what object(s) would you grab on the way out of your house?

The film ends with showing the very objects with which it was made; a silent but powerful point about our products power.

Designers Featured in this film:

Paola Antonelli (Museum of Modern Art, New York)

Chris Bangle (BMW Group, Munich)

Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec (Paris)

Andrew Blauvelt (Walker Art Center, Minneapolis)

Tim Brown (IDEO)

Anthony Dunne (London)

Dan Formosa (Smart Design)

Naoto Fukasawa (Tokyo)

Jonathan Ive (Apple, California)

Hella Jongerius (Rotterdam)

David Kelley (IDEO)

Bill Moggridge (IDEO)

Marc Newson (London/Paris)

Fiona Raby (London)

Dieter Rams (Kronberg, Germany)

Karim Rashid (New York)

Alice Rawsthorn (International Herald Tribune)

Davin Stowell (Smart Design)

Jane Fulton Suri (IDEO)

Rob Walker (New York Times Magazine)