“When you see an object, you make so many assumptions about that object in seconds. What it does, how well it’s going to do it, how heavy it is, how much you think it should cost”. The documentary Objectified by Gary Hustwit explores the process of designing manufactured products through interviews with some of the world’s leading designers. The products that are evident in our everyday lives can be taken for granted and even overlooked but each and every one has a story behind its existence, “Every object, intentional or not, speaks to who put it there.”
Design Curator, Andrew Blauvelt refers to Henry Ford’s famous quote, “Every object tells a story, if you know how to read it”. He uses the example of a common toothpick that has a serrated tip which was originally a Japanese design. He explains that this design decision was due to the Japanese cultural context and its reason in fact was to allow the tip to be broken off to signify the toothpick had been used. Most modern day users of this toothpick such as myself would believe this feature was purely a decorative addition and not even begin to understand the story embedded in this simple object.
In the film, former Design Director of Braun, Dieter Rams discusses what he believes good design is. He explains that in his experience, the most positive interaction with products come when things are clear and understandable. He states that good design is innovative, making a useful product, aesthetic design, making a product understandable, honest, unobtrusive, long lived, consistent in every detail, environmentally friendly. “Last but not least, good design is little design as possible”. He believes designers are not fine artists but need to work with business people to take design seriously. Rams’ opinion is that there are very few companies that currently take design seriously in the world and one of them is Apple.
Jonathan Ive, Senior VP Industrial Design Apple, Cupertino, is interviewed about Apple’s Mac Book Air. Ive provides the audience with an understanding into the complex thought process in designing the Mac Book Air due to its use of materials and manufacturing processes. He explains how a lot of time and resources are taken to design ways of holding parts in different machines to complete required processes. Ive explains how the materials can determine a significant part of the objects overall form such as the first Imac’s use of the cathode ray tube or the Iphone’s use of the touchscreen. These issue mean that Apple do not follow the traditional design philosophy of “form follows function”.
Sustainability is another important issue that is raised in this documentary. It is one that is growing with its need to be addressed as it becomes more and more significant the longer it is left unthought-of. Karim Reshid states that “a shelf life of a high tech object is less than eleven months, they should all be one hundred percent disposable.” So why are they products designed with materials to last? If most of these products end up in landfill then they would benefit from using materials that break down quicker. Reshid provokes the idea why shouldn’t his laptop be made of cardboard or mobile phone out of sugarcane or some bio-plastic.
This film has raised important issues that designers face and must work with in their quest to produce “good design”. It has been highly informative and made me think about things that are not obvious when looking at everyday items that I encounter.
Hope you found this helpful, Jason.
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