We Have Been Objectified: Identity, Consumerism, and the Future of Designed Objects

Moderated by Stuart Constatantine of Core77, the panel included Gary Hustwit the director of Objectified, Tim Brown of IDEO, Davin Stowell of Smart Design, and New York Times Magazine columnist Rob Walker.

As an art director who sometimes wishes he were a product designer this was one of my favorite panels. I unfortunately missed the movie (I’ve already bought my ticket to the showing at the Walker) but Marques has done a fine job of discussing it in a previous entry.

One of the more interesting themes of the discussion was the idea of applying design process to other problems that we face, such as health care, hunger, and the environment. Most people when faced with a problem will look at the pre-existing solutions for that problem and then select the one they deem the best fit. With design thinking you begin by coming up with new solutions, as many as you can, and then selecting from this new pool of options. I would like to think this is something we do everyday in advertising, however, I feel like more often than not we are simply producing work to fill the pre-existing solutions that were bought before we ever saw a brief.

The night before the panel Gary Hustwit had lost his iPhone (at the time of the panel it had been found but he had yet to get hands on it). This lead to a discussion of our relationship with objects and the objects that bring us pleasure, and no he doesn’t mean object sexuals. There are objects we need and objects that make us happy, but why can’t some of the ones we need bring us a little more pleasure? Why can’t my fridge be a beautiful piece of design instead of a hunk of necessity? This made me think about the objects in my life that make me happy: my iPhone, my iMac, my new sneakers, and the Herman Miller chair I just bought on eBay. That’s not that many if you think about all the objects in my life. And why do these particular objects make me happy? Is it because they are well designed or is it because these are newest items in my life and soon they will be just one of many objects lying around my apartment and I will be enamored with something new? It’s probably a mixture of both, but I would venture to guess if the Herman Miller chair wasn’t a classic piece of design it wouldn’t be on my list.

Which leads to the final point made by the panel: We should think more about the purchases we make instead of just consuming constantly. Don’t just buy a table because it’s on sale at Ikea; think about how that table fits into your life. Will you still like this table a year from now, ten years from now? When you get laid off will you want to move this table with you or is it going on craigslist?

Leaving the panel I was left with one lingering thought: We should all strive to apply good design and design process to more facets of our lives.