This is a trailer for “Design Disruptors: How Design Became the New Language of Business,” a new documentary about the craft of digital product design, produced by the crackerjack team at InVision but starring designers from Pinterest, Google Ventures, MailChimp, Twitter and more. It looks like an amazing project but this two-minute preview left me with mixed feelings.
On the one hand, many of the subjects in the movie are people that I respect and admire greatly (and a few are actually friends), and I would gladly sit and watch a feature-length film just to hear their insights, as I’m sure to learn lots from them. Moreover, I have tremendous respect for InVision and what they’ve done in just a few short years in defining the rapid prototyping category. They have an amazing product and even more amazing marketing and frankly I wish it had been Adobe who had the idea to make a documentary on this subject.
But there’s something about the swelling music and the dramatic build up in the trailer that makes me uncomfortable. It has the feeling of the kind of film that captures superhuman quests of courage—but it’s all just design, right? The trailer looks like “Man on Wire” when perhaps it should feel more like “The King of Kong.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m a hundred percent for raising the profile of our profession but I guess maybe I’m just not fully at ease with making us all out to be heroes.
Nevertheless, I fully intend to see the movie. Find out more at designdisruptors.com.
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