Abstract: L'art du design

The ephemeral nature of the beauty we try to copy vs the lasting impression of experiencing the flow state of creative expression is the endearing and intriguing subject matter, one that the producers explore with varying levels of success.

The first one in the series is my personal favorite for the sheer brilliance of solving the impasse between the interests of toy manufacturers and the urgent need for gender neutral toys.

Highly recommended viewing.

The show is excellent, is well directed and very well produced, but what I like the most is the very honest way to present the persons behind the work, they are not presented in typical PR or marketing way, they are presented as humans with some gifts and some struggles, their stories are truly inspiring mostly because are not fantastic or heroic, just because they are very human.

It is fascinating to see this sort of focus applied to the creation of what we might otherwise take for granted, and appreciate not just the art, but the artist behind this work.

I went 30 years without a TV and one of the first shows on Netflix that I watched after getting one was Abstract. Very high quality designers were featured so I thought I'd found a show that I could turn to to watch on a regular basis. Then it was discontinued. I still lament that and wish that whoever was producing, directing, writing the show would do it again. There are so few options in the art and design field. If the powers that be are reading this, please know that you would have a following if enough time were given to the show to get the word out.

Let's face it, these design episodes are meant to entertain rather than to provoke any intellectual thinking. Some designers are genuinely inspiring (such as Niemann and Devlin), it's just that the way the ideas are presented... it seems to tick all the boxes of clichés in terms of what people think of design. I'm sure if asked the right questions, some of the designers will be more illuminating.

The episode most fraught with clichés and posing? Hands down, Neri Oxman. All the superficial citations of well-known figures and mindless mentions of concepts and stories. And all the love for nature without remotely looking like she gives a d*mn about the conservation of it.