Objectified by Gary Hustwit

Early in the movie, one of its many talking heads traces the history of the field to the need for
mass production; arrows used by warriors in Chinese armies had to be standardized.

The movie started out with the obligatory "everything in our lives is designed" segment—an
argument as well worn by designers as it is revelatory to non-designers.

Whether the item is a potato peeler, a computer or a toothbrush, there is a talking head to
explain why it looks and feels the way it does.

Automotive designers talk about the “emotional energy” surrounding cars, which have front
and rear faces. When you buy a car, one says, you are making a statement to yourself about
how you want the world to see you.

Dieter Rams, the former design director for Braun, outlines the principles of good industrial
design. It should make a product useful and be innovative, aesthetically pleasing, easy to
understand, honest, unobtrusive, long-lived, consistent in every detail and environmentally
friendly. Last, he says, good design is as little design as possible. Apple products are cited as
epitomizing good design.

One place where Objectified gets somewhat tripped up is in its hesitance to boldly define the
inherent conflict of the designer, especially now: good design should last and improve with
time, which is often directly opposed to the interests of a commercial designer's clients who
want people to keep buying things.

As an interesting contrast, Naoto Fukasawa explains that in Japan, interactions with a

tangible object are much more important, culturally, to the Japanese.

The biggest challenge to a field that has traditionally served the industrial goal of planned
obsolescence, according to the movie, is a growing awareness that the world is being overrun
by trash; sooner or later most of today’s well-designed products will end up in landfills. There
is a need for “sustainability,” for products that will “wear in” rather than “wear out.”

Although there were many interesting points in the film, there was one in particular that stuck
with me: most companies know the average life span of their products, whether it is a mobile
phone that will probably be used for 15 months, or a toothbrush that will probably last 2
months. But despite this short lifespan, almost all products are made with materials that will
last thousands of years. Karim Rashid, who brought up this point, mentioned that if he will
only keep his cell phone for 11 months, it might as well be made of cardboard that can more
easily be recycled.