Objectified (2009)

           If you live in a developed country and not in the two-thirds world, virtually every object in your life was conceived, designed, and manufactured by an industrial designer. In fact, it's an interesting exercise to try to think of any object in your life that isn't the result of industrial design. Objectified is the second documentary film in indie film maker Gary Hustwit's "Design Trilogy," along with Helvetica (2007) and Urbanized (2011). I've watched all three of them and enjoyed them immensely. Objectified looks at the mass production of objects for mass consumption, like your toaster, toothbrush or alarm clock. Some things are designed well, like your iphone, while others are poorly designed, like an uncomfortable chair or a tool that hurts when you use it. The film interviews industrial designers from all over the world, one of the most interesting of whom is Apple's senior design guru Jonathan Ives. The best design, some think, has a sense of inevitability to it, and might even look and feel undesigned. The film ends with the challenge of sustainability for planet earth as designers create more and more stuff. I watched this film on Netflix streaming.