Netflix continues to feed my obsession with documentaries, and I finished “Objectified” over the weekend.
Objectified is the second installment in Gary Hutswit’s design trilogy, the sequel to “Helvetica” and the prequel to “Urbanized.”
I really enjoyed Helvetica, and so watching Objectified was an easy call. Objectified focuses on industrial design and includes commentary from Dieter Rams, Naoto Fukasawa, Karim Rashid, Marc Newsome, Jony Ive and others. As someone unfamiliar with industrial design, this film was more educational than anything.
One nugget I took away was from the Smart Design team, which collaborated with Sam Farber on the original OXO Good Grips kitchen tools. Their philosophy is design for the extremes, and the average will work itself out, something that served them well with Good Grips.
My wife has long been a fan of OXO’s products, and I quizzed her about the reasons. For the most part, they’re easy to hold and comfortable. I studied a couple of them for a bit and noticed details that I hadn’t noticed before, even after years of owning the tools.
Designing for extremes is an interesting approach, and I wonder how well it would work on any given software project. Probably mixed results, but it would be interesting to have two teams tackle a problem with two approaches, i.e. design for extremes and design for the average. I wonder about the results.
Anyway, I love design, so I loved Objectified. Your mileage may vary. Next up, Urbanized.
