Objectified is a documentary film by Gary Hustwit that brilliantly reminds the audience of the importance of design in society—past, present, and future.
The film is made easy to relate to through its use of familiarity. The film puts design in everyday things. For example, Hustwit focuses on Apple products, cell phones, and digital cameras. These are objects that have become so immersed in our daily lives that people relate to them on an almost personal level. On the other hand, if the film documented the process of making parts of a rocket ship, something that very few people have actual contact with, I don’t think the message would have been delivered as clearly.
The film is made intriguing through its use of novelty. Although the film focuses on familiar objects, it presents them in a way that is unique to the audience. For example, I’ve probably seen/used hundreds of toothpicks in my life. However, I became acquainted with the toothpick for the first time when I watched Objectified. The decorative grooves at the end of the toothpick allow the toothpick to be broken off to indicate that it has been used. The stub also provides a rest to keep the soiled part from touching the table. I had never even thought about toothpicks in this way, but the film explains that this is because design aims to improve everyday life without ever thinking about it.
After engrossing the audience in the world of design, Hustwit pitches the message. Hustwit urges the audience, contemporary designers, and future contemporary designers to focus on what is going to happen—not what has happened. Design should be as ever changing as the times we live in. Just because something is a good design doesn’t mean that that will always stand true. It also doesn’t mean that good design can’t become better design. Take the camera for instance. Camera design has been limited within a rectangle for a few hundred years. Initially, cameras were designed this way to leave space to hold the film. Film has now become a thing of the past…so why are rectangular camera still very much a thing of the present? This room for film is unnecessary, and thus should be eliminated from future camera designs.
Good design is meant to make functionality understandable. If a part of the design isn’t functional then it is not good design. Implementing design properly will make objects more understandable and thus more useful. More useful objects will make objects more sustainable (less nonfunctional pieces to throw away, and more desire to hold on to an item one has become attached to). And more sustainability will better suite all of society. Like the film says, “Good design is as little design as possible.” The sooner contemporary designers realize this the sooner design will truly become contemporary.
