TASK 2D: ETHICAL DESIGN ISSUES

Objectified

Objectified explores our relationship with things, which gets tugged between sometimes conflicted gratification, by going directly to the source: Industrial designers.

It dives into the crux of what is beneath the desire to obtain objects, that programs consumers to momentarily cling to them dearly, and then inevitably discard.

Director Gary Hustwit highlights the thoughts and processes involved in design, considers the inception of products and their corresponding attributes: Form, function, context, inspiration, and evolution.

He briefly touches on the facts that in spite of the existence of machines and rapid prototyping, the original prototypes for most products, are still modeled out by hand. The film opens with a montage of one’s morning routine. Just from getting ready to head out the door, we interact with a myriad of devices and products, many of which are designed to seamlessly fit in with our environment, while remaining exceptionally intuitive.

Hustwit calls upon an elite global posse of talking heads to preach their design beliefs, presenting compressed portraits of the brainstorming, manufacturing, sales, and the use of various products.

Design heroes such as Karim Rashid, Marc Newson, Apple’s Jonathan Ive, and Braun’s Dieter Rams, share their philosophies and products, bringing the driving forces of the field into perfectly composed focus: ‘Good’ industrial design makes the product supreme, but the design invisible.

Dieter Rams, the former design director of 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. He also adds that, good design is as little design as possible.

Hustwit asks put these designers in front of the firing squad, asking straightforward questions that elicit thoughtful, sometimes complicated, answers. The film adopts an honest approach; in the way it deals with our constant want and desire to obtain a products, coupled with more than well-informed designers and companies always creating new ways to reel us in, only speeding up the cycle of consumption.

There is however, a sore fact about the practice of industrial design that cannot be overlooked: Designers want to make objects that you will want to pass down through generations, yet ironically, the field of design field thrives due to the sheer disposability of products.

Towards the end of the film, the topic of sustainability surfaces, but it merely skims the top of this issue laden with detrimental effects. The film effectively exemplifies the appreciation of well-designed objects, but it responsibly warns us and pricks our consciences, with the fact that the production and disposal of these objects require numerous resources.

A fusion of thinkers and doers complements and drives home the film’s greater purpose: Getting us to rethink and draw a line between our needs and wants.