Objectified Reflection

About three weeks ago we began this project by watching a documentary titled Objectified. It was a documentary essentially all about design, having multiple different designers speak about their personal experiences and thoughts. While at times this commentary went slightly over my head, overall it was nearly a life-changing movie. It causes you to think of everything differently. There is intense thought and planning put into every single object you interact with every single day. That is definitely not something one often will put much, if any, thought into.

From Jonathon Ives of Apple to the founders of Flip Video and even Dieter Rams, who created the Ten Principles of Good Design, many famous designers got to share their knowledge towards the subject. Much like Rams' article, he speaks of how design must be sleek and understandable. Ives, on the other hand, spoke more about how design is all about how you view the world. This impacts the kind of designer you are.

A very memorable discussion that really spoke to me is that you are designing for the future. That is something I hadn't thought of before. For me, I always just thought of it as creating something, but rather you want to be innovative - you want to make this the style and hit thing for years to come.

Another very big point that was brought up a few times is how much the style has changed. It used to be that an object's function could be told by it's form, such as a dial telephone or a lamp. Nowadays, that is all skewed with our technology. Looking at an iPhone, one would have absolutely no clue it's function had they not heard of it before. This represents how design can evolve throughout the years.

One last point I would like to bring up is Dieter Rams' talk about how there are now so many designed thing that are just pointless. There is no need for them and they are very nonfunctional. This irks him considering on of his ten principles of good design includes usefulness and functionality.

I'm very glad that we got the opportunity to view this film. It made me look at design in a little bit of a different way and definitely helped to arouse ideas for this project. Hearing these professional designers, who are ideally where we all want to be someday, share what impacts them as designers is very helpful to our process.