Objectified: The Movie

Last night I saw the documentary Objectified, the latest movie from the maker of the film Helvetica:
...it’s about the manufactured objects we surround ourselves with, and the people who make them. On an average day, each of us uses hundreds of objects. (Don’t believe it? Start counting: alarm clock, light switch, faucet, shampoo bottle, toothbrush, razor…) Who makes all these things, and why do they look and feel the way they do? All of these objects are “designed,” but how can good design make them, and our lives, better?
Years ago I read the book The Psychology Of Everyday Things and it really was an eye opener for me. The message of "The Psychology Of Everyday Things" was that if the user has a problem using something, then it's the fault of the design, not the user.

Objectified covers some of the same ground, starting with the idea that we don't even consider that common everyday things are designed. It then moves on to theories of design, before ending with a look at issues of reusability, recyclability and our consumption culture. It's perhaps in these later elements that the movie makes it's strongest points. Along the way, a number of designers pop-up to talk about how they approach design, including Apple's own Jonathan Ive.

Having just seen the movie, a couple of blog posts I saw this morning really resonated:

Movie Site: Objectified


A peek at the upcoming design documentary "Objectified", by Gary Hustwit, the director of "Helvetica". The trailer features the voices of Jonathan Ive, Andrew Blauvelt, Marc Newson, and Karim Rashid. The song is "I Like Van Halen Because My Sister Says They Are Cool" by El Ten Eleven.



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