By Derek Silverio
BDA sr. industrial design manager

Getting inspired is an integral part of the creative process. How do you create an object without referencing history or some already known archetype?

It’s difficult, if not impossible, to create something that does not draw from something else. So, designers need to do their part in assembling the most satisfying elements from everything they can digest.

Inspiration may come from objects, actions or the very people who will use the product. We can be motivated by color in nature, the human body, a latch on a toolbox or button on a cell phone.

Every designer approaches a problem in a different way and every day is different because design is inherently an emotional process. Going to a gallery opening, car show or a film like “Urbanized” is a great way to geek-out professionally and look how others in the industry are attacking similar design problems. I encourage all my team members to look outside of their craft and seek out ingenious ways to evolve their products that tell a story.

This documentary was created by Gary Hustwit, the director of “Helvetica” (about the typeface and graphic design) and “Objectified” (about industrial/product design). Those past two films gave a poetic and insightful view of those design disciplines. So it was only fitting Hustwit’s next work was about urban design and architecture.

I enjoyed how “Urbanized” scours the world looking at how every culture deals differently with over population, urban sprawl, traffic and the environment. The film makes it clear that sometimes the very thing that was meant to connect cities to their population can be the very thing that divides them.

Today we see cities built around the automobile. The average citizen commutes vast distances and is cut off from the social interaction of the traditional village or pre-industrialized community.

We have much to learn from flexible living and communal spaces where residents have real input into the layout of their community. “Urbanized” presents examples in Africa, South America and the U.S. where this co-op way of thinking breaks down cultural barriers, provides green spaces, safer play areas and easier ways to travel.

There are new and innovative ways cities are finding to create greater social equality. “Urbanized” gives us hope that we can come together and solve the next new set of challenges as we build and rebuild the areas in which we live.