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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Film Attention Design Nerds and Those Who Love Them

Posted by David Schmader on Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 2:09 PM

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You have tonight, tomorrow, and Thursday to catch Objectified on the big screen at the Northwest Film Forum.

For those who don't know, Objectified is the latest creation of filmmaker Gary Hustwit, who made last year's beloved love-letter-to-a-font Helvetica. The second installment of what Hustwit says will be a "design trilogy," Objectified focuses on industrial design and its mass-produced artifacts, telling the stories behind some of the most iconic objects of our age via interviews with the people who designed them.

It's all pretty straightforward talking-head documentary stuff, but if you appreciate the subject matter, you will love this movie. Particular points of interest: the international adoration earned by the objects of Apple, the grooming habits and style choices of the world's top industrial designers, and, as driven home time and again, the untold wealth of thought and work and fussing and editing that goes into creating an object so well-designed it feels effortless.

If you think you would like this movie, you're right. Go see it.

Comments (6) RSS

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helvetica was the shit.

that can opener IS shit. the side-opener ones are way better.

Posted by Max Solomon on July 14, 2009 at 2:18 PM

Helvetica was more focused so it was better ... but that's by little fault of Objectified, since it just, by definition, tackles a much broader subject and doesn't really focus on one object. It ends up sort of dangling though, in the end.

When we saw it, I remember my boyfriend wanted to see more of the rejected designs rather than the continuous parade of final ones; we both thought that would be more educational and insightful. For that reason, we found the veggie peeler segment fantastic. The film was at its best when it was engrossed in the minutiae, which actually doesn't happen terribly often, considering. It's still quite enjoyable though, so: recommended!

Posted by Gloria on July 14, 2009 at 3:18 PM

Agreed, Gloria @ 2, about how gratifying the inclusion of failures or messy early steps of successes would've been.

I felt the same way about the (also good) "Art & Copy" that played SIFF and is coming to NWFF soon: it's all the greatest hits of advertising, which is great, but so would a small tour through notorious or even boring failures...

Posted by David Schmader on July 14, 2009 at 3:32 PM

Do they blame the potato peeler for the Vietnam War?

Posted by Greg on July 14, 2009 at 3:37 PM

When I was in school I remember seeing a selection of Herb Lubalin's rejected work in an old German graphic design magazine, and it was some of the cooler of his stuff I've seen (and that's saying a lot). Unless it's Paul Rand, who from what I have heard only gave clients one design option, there are always interesting ideas that get rejected for being weird or not quite right for a particular client. Anyway I'm psyched to see both Objectified and Art & Copy... David Schmader, I always like your design and fashion posts.

Posted by Strath

on July 14, 2009 at 5:11 PM

Also of note: Kristian Dunn scored this film. He's the guitarist from El Ten Eleven (The band featured prominently on the Helvetica soundtrack).

What I'm saying is, I imagine the score for this film is amazing.

Posted by bconnolly on July 15, 2009 at 1:54 AM