Objectified

I saw this documental three times. I also played it in my user centered design class. It's great material for educative purposes, but for first or second semester design students, and particularly the design process at Smart Design and IDEO. I do personally empatize with the way design is done at those two firms. Dieter Rams interview is great. Although it shows the state of affairs and different points of view, it's scope is too narrow, mostly focusing in well known designers, curators, critics and studios from the US, Europe and only one from Asia (N. Fukasawa) Design book publishers (Phaidon) started to realize that there is a lot of good design activity beyond the U.S. , Europe and Japan. I't would be great to see a second part showing the work of Filipino, Brazilian, Kenian or Mexican designers or small design consultancies in emerging countries who have to apply a lot of creativity, obtaining great designs in cultures with less corporation oriented design philosopies, and more technology limited environments. I do agree partially with "JW's" review, Most of this people are involved with a small fraction of the produced goods in the world but it does generally sample the way many design professionals do their work.
Overall its a good introductory film, but I hope more deep filmed material on I.D. will show up in the future.

Objectified is an odd beast. It's too niche for the average person, yet it's not informative enough for experienced designers. Objectified falls into that category of "introductions to a subject that only people already in it will care about." Also, being about designers, it has moments of intense navel gazing. One designer makes a particularly floaty claim about how government policy makers will turn to designers for truth.

There is also a section in the middle about the "greening" of design, which feels forced and out of place. It is wedged in there to hit a particular demographic checkbox. And there is a *lot* of shots of people on the street using their cellphones in slow motion. By the end, this technique has long since degraded into cornball.

That is not to say that Objectified is without value. If you know who Dieter Rams is, you might get a kick out of seeing him trim his bonzai. You might enjoy watching Jonathan Ives wipe shmutz off of his iPhone screen, or hear people talk about the birth of User Interface design. Don't expect any actual information about User Interface design, or design in general. The enthusiasm that some of these designers bring to the table is infectious. And their perspectives on design, while classic archetypes, have been useful reviews to stay on message with.

But what Objectified brings to the table is not rocket science. It is a basic, but solid 1st-year introduction to the world of industrial design.

I enjoyed this movie but, it did not feel as tight as Helvetica. I think a slightly different direction in filmmaking and editing was needed. It felt slow and ponderous at times. Maybe it was the subject - limited to commercial product design? Just not enough juicy material to bite into. Maybe industrial design is too young, too commercial, too much built to meet the buyer's needs - despite any radical concepts or methodologies that emerge?
I would like to have seen more 20th C. history. Joe Columbo, AEG: Peter Behrens (the worlds first industrial designer and first to create and use all types of design at a corporation in a consistent manner), Buckminster Fuller (maybe), 1920s American design, Raymond Lowey, etc.. Even as a short 15 minute segment or interspersed throughout, it would be nice to see the history that lead to the "object".