OBJECTIFIED: form & content

          Last Thursday, we watched a film about design during the second half of DES001. In the documentary film, Objectified, one of the designers in the movie (who's name I couldn't jot down fast enough) described three phases that a design usually goes through in order to realize some kind of meaningful function. The three phases are form, symbolism and content, and contextual sense. In this blog, I want to focus on how form and content interact in design.
         One of the designers that I was able to jot down was Jane Fulton Suri, a chief creative officer from IDEO, a global design firm; she saw designers as being capable of being "culture generators," and that "they design scenarios based on objects to see the consequences of their choices." In the process of designing things, form is the constraints of the content of a design in the physical world. Designers indirectly influence popular culture by taking certain concepts/content and making them real in many different forms. A very good example of a company that advocates good design explored by the film is Apple, because they think so innovatively. Jonathan Ive, a senior VP at Apple, asks such questions as"why is it like that and not like this???"  when they looks at products, including their own. He emphasizes how you, as the client or the targeted audience, have to connect with the product. The main content of their products are interaction design and with that, they like to continue that concept with its form. For example, the iPod touch and Macbook Pro have a smooth, stylish, sophisticated, yet simple design to reflect the user friendly interface and sophisticated software inside. The simplicity of their physical form makes it more universal because it looks more approachable and appealing. It can be easily personalized, and it has no particular target audience.

MacBook Pro

Ipod Touch

          The quality of their forms, from the Macbooks aluminum body and the iPod Touch's stainless steel back and glass screen, reflects the quality of the software. This is why Apple is revered for having good design in a lot of their products, when form and content meet on the same level.


Credits/Links:
[Objectified film by Gary Hustwit] http://www.objectifiedfilm.com/
[Info about Jane Fulton Suri] http://www.ideo.com/people/jane-fulton-suri
[Info about IDEO] http://www.ideo.com/about/
[Macbook pro] http://www.komplettblog.ie/tag/macbook-pro/
[Ipod Touch] http://www.techerator.com/2009/11/comparison-motorola-droid-vs-ipod-touch/