Thursday, November 19, 2009
Let's Objectify "Objectified"
"Good design is as little design as possible."
- Jonathon Ive
- Jonathon Ive
Gary Hustwit's documentary, "Objectified", explores the world of industrial design and the relation of form and function in our everyday lives.
Through interviewing several key players in the design field, Hustwit successfully motivates the designer to ignore the pressures of creating the newest, most innovative world and focus back on the root of it all.
Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec state, "Often our hardest job is to remove remove remove."
The title itself, "Objectified", reflects precisely the point that the Bouroullecs, their fellow designers, and Hustwit try to emphasize: in order to truly analyze the design of "objects", we must take a step back and view design "objectively".
The Bouroullecs points to the process of removing the unnecessary things that make a design bad design but they are also pointing to the process of removing everything the designer thinks he or she knows about design.
Huswit's film points to the essential flaw and assumption of design: the trendy factor. It is easy to assume that design is about creating what is new and cutting edge without a true relation between form and function. It is also easy to continue down a path that previous designers have cut for you - expanding upon designs that may be good but are more than likely bad.
To be a good designer, we must assume we know nothing. We must remember what it is that makes humans design in the first place. We desire to make life easier, and much of the design in today's world fails to do that (especially in the long run).
As Jonathon Ive (of Apple) states so simply in the above quote, the consumer should not even be able to detect the presence of design. Good design should not be questioned because the user will feel as though there is simply no other way an object should be created. Designers must remember not to seek being recognized for creating the trendy. Designers must remember to be forgotten... only then will good design become only the present, without a history (as far as the consumer is concerned). Good design is forever.
9:06 PM by jamie.