Objectified Blu-ray Review
"Every object tells a story, if you know how to read it."
Reviewed by Casey Broadwater, November 27, 2009
Look around you. Chances are, unless you're sitting in a field of wildflowers, magically accessing this
website through telepathy, you're surrounded by objects—objects that, before ever going into mass
production, were designed. Think of the chair that ergonomically supports your spine, the keyboard
at your fingertips, the light fixtures and cabinets on the wall, and each of the pens, pencils, and
pairs of scissors that stand upright in your old coffee mug, which was, itself, the product of some
unseen imagination. Nearly everything—every
thing—that we come in contact with
throughout our lives has been consciously created, its form and function considered, its materials
chosen, its manufacturing engineered, by one or more designers. Yet, how often do we stop to
consider the human ingenuity that comes before a product hits the store shelves, before ad execs
pitch a marketing ploy, before the assembly lines, prototypes, and CAD designs? At some point,
every object was born inside a mind. Director Gary Hustwit follows up
Helvetica—his
documentary on the quietly ubiquitous typeface—with
Objectified, a companion piece that
examines the similarly unsung trade of industrial design.
A few year ago, when one of my friends told me about
Helvetica, which he described as a
layman's look into the last 50 years of graphic design, I was admittedly skeptical. How much can
one say about a font? As I watched the film, the real question became: how can one font say so
much? If you're not familiar with the typeface, picture the logo for American Airlines, The Gap, or
Crate & Barrel. Helvetica is omnipresent, a clean font that nearly disappears into whatever
message it's carrying, proving to be just as malleable as language itself. For months after
watching the documentary I would notice any and all instances of Helvetica—on street signs and
tax documents, in art galleries and post offices, everywhere.
Objectified has the same
effect. Afterward, you may find yourself questioning the presence of a tiny curve in your
toothbrush's handle or wondering exactly
why your cell phone is so satisfying to open
and close. If you've never noticed these kinds of things before, it's probably because the designers
have done their jobs well. One strong assertion made in the film is that good design is invisible
design, that a product should feel inevitable, as though it could not be any other way.
Of course, designers widely differ on what constitutes "good" design. Whereas
Helvetica
is driven by a polemical schism in the graphic design industry regarding the font—some love its
mutability, others see it as corporate and essentially soulless—
Objectified is inherently
less argumentative, focusing instead on the designers' varying approaches to their craft. Brothers
Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec have a simple goal, "to create an environment where people feel
good." Others are more considered. Former Braun designer Dieter Rams explains that good design
should not only be aesthetic, honest, and unobtrusive, but also long-lived, environmentally
friendly, and "as little design as possible." We're given a brief tour of a Braun showroom that
exemplifies these traits; the products are predisposed to clean white lines and readily apparent
functionality. Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa also employs a minimalist aesthetic, which he
likens to haiku poetry. "By writing simply and only about what is there," he says, "the audience is
drawn into the poet's world. Their imagination is stimulated and a silent connection is
established." He shows off a cell phone he designed, its shape meant to mimic the angular lines
of a pealed potato, which gives its owner a tactile experience that's direct and evocative. This
syncs up nicely with Davin Stowell, founder of Smart Design, who discusses the research that
goes into creating a new handle for the traditional potato peeler—which has never been that
comfortable to use. He explains how design should take into consideration the "extremes" of an
object's target demographic—the oldest and youngest users, the weakest and strongest,
etc.
While much of the design featured in
Objectified skews toward sleek, utilitarian
reinterpretations of 1930s modernism and post-WWII futurism, the aim isn't to promote any one
style, but to simply get the audience thinking about the processes that go into creating objects
and the impact that industrial design has on our lives. Jonathan Ives, VP of Industrial Design for
Apple, breaks apart an iMac for us, explaining the attempt to streamline parts—why have nine
when one will do?—and making the point that the most difficult part of designing a product is
actually figuring out the manufacturing processes. Chris Bangle, a former design director for
BMW, asserts that cars are the world's most abundant sculptures, and that they essentially serve
as avatars for our personalities. And "techo-organic" designer Karim Rashid sees a dichotomy in
how we carry high tech devices like iPods, cell phones and laptops, but still sit in chairs with
wooden spindle legs.
One point of contention, for the design industry as a whole, is the problem of sustainability.
Columnist Rob Walker is
Objectified's sole voice of outright dissent, and he argues that
design is not created out of some altruistic attempt at problem solving, but is ultimately urged on
by companies who want new SKUs to sell. The items currently rolling off assembly lines will be
dated by the time they even reach store shelves, as people want to "buy the new 'now'"
products. The documentary's most harrowing sequence shows ancient-looking computers—which
can't be more than a few years old—being disassembled, their gray casings shattered, compacted,
and stacked. We can only hope these are going to be recycled, but the truth is, much of what we
purchase is going to end up in a landfill. And if it's constructed of plastic, it's going to stay there
forever. "If I had a billion dollars to fund a marketing campaign," says Walker, "I would launch a
campaign on behalf of things you already own. Why not enjoy them today?" It's a point that
throws the whole design enterprise into question—and also makes us feel slightly guilty for being
such voracious consumers—but
Objectified mostly skirts this issue, choosing to focus
instead on the positive aspects of design.
Like
Helvetica,
Objectified is shot and edited with a brisk economy that mirrors
the minimalism of its subject matter. Director Gary Hustwit mixes the talking head interviews
with gracefully static shots of everyday objects, and scores the imagery with equally clean and
serene post-rock instrumental music from the likes of El Ten Eleven, Expanding Head Band, Alva
Noto and others. While the documentary does seem short considering all the ideas being bandied
about, this disc also includes nearly one hour of additional interviews that further elucidate many
of the film's themes. If you're into design, or if you've ever simply wondered how the things that
surround you come into being,
Objectified is essential viewing.
Objectified Blu-ray, Video Quality
Objectified is a thing to behold on Blu-ray, with a generally strong 1080p/MPEG-2
presentation that makes good use of the documentary's high definition video source material.
There's no stylization here whatsoever; everything is presented realistically and unaltered,
accurately reflecting the world as it is. As such, colors are not quite as vivid and deep as those you'd
see in a feature film, but neither are they washed out or indistinct. The same goes with black levels,
which are suitably deep but never quite carve out the dimensional contrast and presence you'd find
in a movie. Fitting with the content, the documentary has a very clean visual aesthetic, with a
predominance of white and gray thanks to the minimalist working spaces occupied by the designers
interviewed for the film. Clarity is no concern; though
Objectified isn't quite as sharp as
other productions that can afford better lenses and cameras, there's plenty of detail to be found
here, from tiny pellets of plastic to nicely reproduced skin and textile textures. The downsides of pro-
sumer grade video equipment are occasionally apparent, however, especially in overblown highlights
that can give faces in bright light a splotchy sheen. On the other side, digital noise and artifacts are
kept to a minimum. In
Objectified, the medium certainly matches the message, with a
picture that's clean, economic, and viewer-friendly.
