Design Thinking Digest

Gary Hustwit’s ‘Objectified’ will screen at MIX

The MIX team is hearting design in a big way this year.

Objectified is a feature-length independent documentary about industrial design. It’s a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It’s about the people who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability. It’s about our relationship to mass-produced objects and, by extension, the people who design them. Read director Gary Hustwit’s post about the film. If you enjoyed Gary's last film, Helvetica, you can't miss this!

Chris Bernard is speaking at SxSW Interative

To be honest my speaking opportunities at SxSW are only going to be one part of the excitement. Between PhizzPop and some other things we are doing with are doing with SxSW we are going to have a surprising and fun presence at this event. But...even though I'm a designer I'm still a bit of a geek too and that's why this panel that I've submitted to SxSW is so exciting to me.

Hollywood and Design and Literature: Just who is inspiring who?

Gattaca, Minority Report, Children of Men, Battlestar Galatica. Cinema and television inspire technologists and vice versa. Who’s driving who these days? Join interaction designers and some of Hollywood’s best special effects artists and story tellers and discover how convergence in these two worlds is already happening.

A review of Hollywood inspiration.

A debate on what’s really coming in the future.

A discussion on how science fiction and Hollywood inspires us.

Design in Cinema

Along time ago I thought I'd make movies (maybe I still will). As part of my exploration of film I did a great deal of film studies work versus just learning the ins and outs of production. One theme I've been thinking about alot lately is how design is represented in film. Not so much as a component in a film's creation but how it's used. I can think of no better recent example than The Incredibles which was such a rich and complex piece of work on so many levels.

Jessica Helfand wrote an interesting essay on this subject at Design Observer. You may have enjoyed The Incredibles for its humor, its story, its love of classic comics and early James Bond films but even though you can't put your finger on you probably also appreciated it for it's love of design and how it's usage shaped the different acts of the film.

If you think The Incredibles is just a move for kids give it a look if you're a fan of DC comics from the 50's, James Bond from the 60's and mid-century modernism.