Post #11 - Evaluating Sources

For my prompted post this week, I chose to watch a documentary called Objectified. The documentary digs deep into the human relationship with the design of certain products, and how those products shape who we are and how we live. Throughout the film, we are shown different designers across the world in places such as Paris, Germany, Tokyo, and California. For example, in Paris, we are shown the complexity of building and designing chairs while having to think about who those chairs are for and what kind of innovative thinking goes into creating and manufacturing them. Ultimately, the film revolves around the technological to the non technological objects and how they shape the lives we live. Towards the beginning of the documentary, we are shown a design curator, who is describing even the simplest of objects, a toothpick. He talks about how the tip of the toothpick can easily be broken off to become a rest for that toothpick to sit on. What I liked about the interview with this designer was that he brings up a quote by Henry Ford: "Every object tells a story if you know how to read it." Another interview that kept my attention was of the Senior VP of Industrial Design at Apple in Cupertino, California. He talks about how we as people look at objects and how we ask ourselves, "Why is it like that and not like this?" Which in a general sense, is causing us to "constantly create." Another important thing that was said in the documentary is that when designing, it's important to look and anticipate what will be popular in the future, rather than what has already been created in the past. Towards the end of the film, a man briefly describes how the objects we have in our homes have value to us because they take part in our everyday lives. In other words, they reflect the true story of who we are and the story we tell.

As a marketing major, I really enjoyed watching this documentary. I found it really interesting to see how the objects we use, whether just a toothpick or a computer, have a true meaning in who we are as people. The documentary really focused on how each and every one of us are creative beings but also how we live off the creativity of other people as well. Every day, creative minds are working to better how a product works, whether it's from the design stage of a certain product to the manufacturing stage. Whether we realize it or not, objects that endured hours of designing and creating are surrounding us every day. The keyboard I am typing on right now was built in a way for the benefit of myself, in this case, a consumer. Even the chair I'm sitting on, or the spoon in my cereal bowl, and even the lamp on my desk. All of these items consumed a certain designer's time to ensure that it would be creative and easy to use. This film in a sense reminded me of the videos I've watched on Steve Jobs. Especially where Jobs had described Nike as a company and how they focus on great athletes and athletics rather than just the product itself. The objects shown in Objectified, such as a chair, a toothpick, a vacuum cleaner, or a computer - they are all being created while having the consumer's well-being kept in mind. Personally, this is why design exists in whatever it is that we do. We are constantly made happy by the easy-to-use whatever it might be, and ultimately, the design stage of that object is what universally makes it so successful.