I think that what designers will do in the future is to become the reference point for policy-makers, for anybody who wants to create a link between something that is highfalutin and hard to translate, and reality and people. And I almost envisage them as becoming the intellectuals of the future. --Paola Antonelli, curator for The Museum of Modern Art

Objectified is Gary Hustwit second foray into the world of design. His first, Helvetica, focused on the typeset and the last of the trilogy is Urbanized, which looks at urban design.

The goal of Objectified is to look at the world of objects, from chairs, cars and toothbrushes, and investigate the meaning such objects have in our lives, what they…

Gary Hustwit's second installment in his "Design Trilogy" line of documentaries centers on the nature of objects and how we understand and utilize them. Whether we realize it or not, hundreds of objects that we collect and store for our own personal usage develop a story and history, based on our own needs and wants for daily living. These range from the Chromebook I use to clack away and write reviews for this site, among other uses, or remotes that are either gently picked up or thrashed on another surface depending on whether the batteries have enough juice to operate them, and all of these object create a sort of dependence and identity based around the user. Such a broad…

While Objectified can offer some insights into the design process and many of its issues it grapples with in the contemporary world, the documentary fundamentally fails to say anything substantive on our relationship to objects beyond effete stoner-tier gestures acknowledging consumerism, with absent critique. 

I find the narrative stated by some of those interviewed "good design is something with as little design as possible", or that design is leading us to an inevitability of linear progression towards a primal definitive understanding (which the film opens the first 20 minutes with), to be extremely toxic to fully understanding the ramifications of design. The stance says to me that the speaker fundamentally isn't questioning their ideological positions. The notion that the way…