It’s very generous of Gary Hustwit to make his films free right now. He’s being doing one a week. I watched Rams last night and really enjoyed it. Dieter Rams lived in post-war Germany and pretty much invented modern product design. He was hugely influential to Jony Ive and Apple. If you like well-made documentaries about people fully engaged in their craft, I highly recommend it.
Also, check out Objectified which is more about product design in general and features Ives. Helvetica is my favorite Hustwit film, but this comes close if not surpasses it.
I watched Helvetica since I am a strange person mesmerized by typefaces design. The lady in the film who claimed that Helvetica was responsible for the Vietnam War made me realize I am really not an insider with this crowd.
Heh, for a second I thought this was the 2015 Icelandic film that got much love from the critics. [0]
But this is even more interesting, I've never heard the guy's name before but if his style influenced Apple, he's the kind of creator I'd like to know.
Also, those who might not be interested in a documentary about a designer should at least check out the film's soundtrack. The amazing Brian Eno made it and he rarely misses.
Most of it is in German. so i had to read subtitles. there is an English version, but (at least for now), it's not free. (I'm not complaining, I'm letting you all know)
It was mostly about the man, and less about his work. i would've preferred the reverse. of course, it's on the label...
I liked it, but i didn't love it. I'm gonna watch it again on a PC (instead of Chromecasting to my TV, and maybe in English) and screenshot the products that caught my eye.
I would argue for biographical format the movie takes. Rams’ design is this foundation for what now represents an aspirational aesthetic. The design is not faceless, but it aims to be invisible.
Having a glimpse of the individual and his philosophies gives insight into how he made those decisions. It also gives a sense of the forces that working against him.
At the beginning of the film, he took a question from an aspiring industrial designer about overcoming mediocrity. Rams’ response was about surrounding oneself with people who see themselves as striving to be better. Obviously, this statement is portable to beyond just design.
That was inspirational. Thoroughly enjoyed watching that and, quite aside from the elegant 10 principles stuff, I couldn't agree more with Rams' objection to the vulgar insistence on big, prominent logos, rather than his preference for understatement - a signature by design, rather than shouting.
Also, check out Objectified which is more about product design in general and features Ives. Helvetica is my favorite Hustwit film, but this comes close if not surpasses it.