Despite it being all around us and a part of everything we do, it’s rare that one stops to look around and truly appreciate design, ranging from something as simple as the layout of a page to how things are made to the macrocosm of city and national planning. Often taken for granted, director Gary Hustwit has crafted a trilogy focusing on design in three very different ways. Hustwit’s works will be screened this weekend (January 13 and 14) at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto in a series called Design for Living: Gary Hustwit’s Design Trilogy.
In his first film Helvetica (Saturday, January 14 at 12:30 p.m.), Hustwit looks at what has affectionately become referred to as “the hipster font” and traces its origin, usage, and its role in how we read and perceive text. In his second film, Objectified (Saturday, January 14 at 3 p.m.), Hustwit uses some incredibly vivid cinematography and intriguing interviews to take a look at how we take for granted the fact that every product in our lives has been designed down to the tiniest details – from vacuum cleaners and Apple computer products to vegetable peelers and toothpicks.
In his most recent film, Urbanized (which played this past fall at TIFF), Hustwit delivers possibly his most universally relevant, if somewhat obvious, features to date with his astute look at the design of major urban areas and the strategies used by builders, politicians, and the general populace to shape the world around them.
Hustwit will be in attendance for the screenings of both Helvetica and Objectified on Saturday, and he will be presenting Urbanized on Friday at 6:30 p.m. Urbanized will also have encore screenings on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. and Tuesday, January 17 at 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m.
For more information and tickets please visit tiff.net.
Top image: A scene from Urbanized. Courtesy TIFF.
