National Design Awards + Objectified

• By: Jeannie Kim
• | Saturday May 9, 2009

Gary Hustwit’s latest film, Objectified is playing at the IFC downtown for a limited run. Hustwit himself is seemingly traveling along with the film to nearly fifty venues between now and mid-summer, so both he and the film are likely coming to a venue near you if you happen not to be in New York. The poster, seen here, and the very large milled piece of Corian that appears in the opening sequence of the film were designed by Michael C. Place. Like Helvetica, it’s an engaging and imminently personal account but rather than focusing on a single font, Hustwit’s latest film scans the current climate of industrial design. It also serves as a mini-reunion for many of the honorees of the National Design Awards. Included are this year’s finalists, Smart Design, as well as this year’s Lifetime Achievement winner Bill Moggridge, and Andrew Blauvelt, the Design Director and Curator at the Walker Art Center. Previous honorees with similar star turns include Karim Rashid, Paola Antonelli, David Kelley, Jonathan Ive, and former jurors Chris Bangle and Tim Brown. (We also suspect that the Director of Photography, Luke Geissbuhler, is related to Steff Geissbuhler, partner at C&G Partners, Communication Design finalists in 2007.)