The Genius of Design: BBC documentary series exploring the history of design
Back in early May BBC began airing a five part documentary series on the history of design. Luckily, for those of us outside of the UK, episodes one and two have been posted to vimeo (with hopefully the rest to come.) The Genius of Design sets out to answer the question, what makes a designer, through analysis of the world of stuff designers have created for us to live in. I’ve just had the pleasure of watching episode one, “Ghosts in the Machine” which explores the origins of industrial design as we know it today – the time when man discovered that machines could be made to produce more, faster. A time that marked the beginning of the removal of soul from objects, yet put an even greater emphasis on the need for well thought out design.
BBC, as always, does a nice job of entertaining and giving you something to think about so I’m looking forward to watching the rest of the series. I’m still digesting some of the ideas presented and highly recommend you check it out if your even remotely interested in design or are in any creative field, music, photography, research, a lot of the principles carry over and you’ll come away with a new perspective of the stuff that surrounds your life.
UPDATE: All episodes are now posted for a limited time. You can link to them all here.

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Think or Smile | Nathaniel Whitcomb © 2010