Designing Experiences
Friday, April 24th, 2009
Around the time that I first heard Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, I thought to myself, “I wish there was a documentary about Wilco recording this album.” It’s an increadible album, and something made me think there had to be a story behind it. Fast forward a few years, and while hanging out at dear Matty K’s house, he said he got cool documentary about WIlco. I couldn’t believe my ears.
Gary Hustwit was an executive producer of that film (“I am Trying To Break Your Hear”) and a few other docs about small bands. Helvetica was his directorial debut, and the film totally blew me away. Hearing the smartest designers in the world speak so eloquently and thoughtfully about a subject so dear to my heart was thrilling. I wondered why no one had made this movie before. It was around the time after watching Helvetica that I decided to go to art school to study graphic design.
Thank you Wilco
Soon after Helvetica, I heard the same director was working on a film about Industrial design called Objectified. I started following his blog, and there were some interesting bits. Marian Bantjes had a funny rant about a toothbrush, and I learned about Michael C. Place from Build designing that beautiful logo. Then I read a post about a screening of the film in San Francisco. Then I read about how they needed volunteers to help out with the screening. I sent Gary and email, and he promtly responded.
Wednesday night I went to the Kabuki Theater to see the film, and it was awesome. I met Gary right away. He was a totally nice guy, and seemed to have an interesting demeanor for a guy that was premiering his movie. He appeared very calm and laid back. I guess he’s a professional.
There were a lot of questions I wanted to ask him, but whenever I think of questions ahead of time, I quickly forget them and talk about bullshit. So I asked him how the premiers in London went, and other stupid stuff. I was just trying to stay cool for how hard I was fanning out. Connor came with fellow film major and I introduced him to Gary. Connor asked if he was gonna be watching the film, and Gary said the only thing he was gonna be a watching was his beer disappear.
The film itself was awesome. Hearing Dieter Rams say his 10 Commandments of Design in German was awesome (my favorite is “Good design is as little design as possible”), as was watching Johnathan Ive speak about the production of Mac Books. Intensely interesting stuff.
The big idea I’ll take away from the film is this: Designers design experiences. Actually they design objects or interfaces, but the important part of the equation is whats going on between the viewer/user and the object/interface. I suppose this is obvious, but when you think about it like that, you realize all designers are just problem solvers working with different tools and substrates/media. Like when you design a book, you are in turn dictating how the reader will enjoy that book. It’s an enormous responsibility, and very difficult to do it well, but hey, what else am I devoting my life to?
Everyone should watch this film.
After the show I was chatting a little more with Gary and he said that he made Helvetica and Objectified because they were films he wanted to see. I told him about wanting to see a Wilco documentary and then realizing that there was already a great one released. He said that the Wilco doc went way over budget, took a long long time, but was overall a total success. He said if it hadn’t have been as successful as it was, his company would not have ever produced Helvetica or Objectified. I told him how my life would have been a little different had I not seen Helvetica, and he said “Well I guess you owe it all to Wilco then!”
