Minimalize Me

Gary Hustwit’s film “Objectified,” features simply the people of design. The movie features how designers operate in society to create items we may not even know that we need. Hustwit chose to show designers at work interspersed with interviews on what design means to them. In the beginning of the film, designer Dieter Rams gives a long list of what design should be, ending with “design should be as little design as possible.” This theme of simplicity is consistent throughout the film. Jonathan Ive, a senior executive at Apple, described the process Apple designers use to make things smaller and simpler, such as the Macbook Air. One of their most important tasks is figuring out how to make “6 parts into 1.” The French Bouroullec designers said that the hardest part of their job is to “remove, remove, remove” to bring the greatest unity to the design. Designers have to remember and consider that most of their designs end up in a landfill, said Tim Brown, one of the founders of IDEO, insinuating that using as few resources as possible to create a design is best. The form of the movie echoes this theme of simplicity. There are no fancy voiceovers, no shocking scenes, just real designers in their environments. Scenes smoothly transition from one designer to the next, taking, for example, Bouroullec’s mention of Marc Newson to a scene of the designer in action. This pared down film will be understood by a wide range of audiences throughout society because of its elegant simplicity.
(picture courtesy of boingboing)