Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Objectified: Design & Life



Last night I attended a showing of the documentary film about Industrial Design: Objectified by Gary Hustwit, the director of Helvetica (which I have not seen). Not only was it a joy and a luxury to focus on design with a group of similarly-focused, but differently skilled people (mostly architects & graphic designers from the group, Design Evanston), but as well I found the film thought-provoking. One concept that stuck with me, [illustrated by how the camera has retained its form, originally designed around rolls of film, despite the fact that cameras have gone digital and now no longer need film] is how the old dictum, "Form Follows Function," is no longer necessarily true.
Here is a clip featuring Apple's VP of Industrial Design, Jonathan Ive. Near the end of it, he talks about how, when good design works well, it "feels un-designed." I usually agree. Often in gardens, I feel spaces are way too over-designed and self-conscious to a degree that you cannot lose yourself in them and connect with nature in a liberating way.
Image of vacated chrysalises above was taken last summer during one of my garden tours. Loretta Downs gave us a demonstration of how she raises Monarchs to support positive experiences at the end of life. Both chrysalises and Loretta's work: good (as opposed to intelligent) design, so to speak...

3 comments:

Altoon Sultan said...

I loved the film Helvetica, so thanks for writing about the director's new film. I'll be sure to put it in my Netflix queue.

Julie Siegel said...

I see Gary Hustwit is at work on the third in his trilogy: Urbanized, about the design of cities.

LINDA from Each Little World said...

Wasn't this a great film! And you will equally enjoy Helvetica.