Objectified Content and Form

In the movie Objectified, by Gary Hustwit , there was too many great information and inspirational ideas to take in in one screening. One might have to watch the movie more than twice to receive and understand all the ideas and thoughts of each designer that was featured in this film. The movie is really intense if you're definitely a design geek. But even if you aren't, this movie can open your eyes to the design world and hopefully appreciate good design. All these great characteristics of the film is what you would call the interaction of form and content.

For the first three minutes of the documentary, a chair transform from what looks to be millions of small plastic pellets. A voice then mentions that within a matter of seconds of seeing an object, one will immediately judge it and make assumptions about that object. This amazing fact sucks in the viewer to learn more about what they subconsciously do. In the documentary, form and content play around, jumping back and forth. When designer Dieter Rams stated in the documentary that, “Good design is minimal design,” that is the message he ultimately would want you to hear; this is the one of the contents of the film. There were other determinants of what “good design” was to him, but the flag that particular quote raised was the one with a bit apple on it.

John Ive of Apple explained how they efficiently design their apple desktops; they do not waste any of their materials. With one slab of aluminum, they can create a whole desktop casing along with the essentials of the keyboard, which in fact includes the busses and mounts for everything needed to get things running. Nothing is wasted. This is considered the form of design mentioned in the film; the shapes and sizes designs come out to be. In this case, Apple responds to two determinants Deiter Rams had mentioned earlier in the film. “Good design is minimal design,” which we can find evidence in Apple's products. And “good design is environmentally friendly,” which is also found in Apple's way in developing their products (their desktop, for instance).

Form and content can be found everywhere and in everything. Understanding what is being said and how it is said is the fun part of understanding art and design.