Design for Machine Living

Design for Machine Living
The new film from the creators of "Ice Age" isn't just a triumph of computer animation, though it surely is that as well. Its design is amazing, a riotous Mixmaster of pre-1950 styles and colors.

Too often we don't pay attention to the design that's all around us, particularly if that design is now classified as antique -- even if we have warm feelings for that old Waring blender (with the chrome base and clover-leaf pitcher), Toastmaster toaster or 1948 Cadillac.

Earl, sadly reduced to a ghostly pitchman for Buick in an ad campaign a few years back, designed that car, just as Loewy designed the classic Electrolux vacuum cleaner (building on the work of Lurelle Guild) and Paul Rand created the IBM logo. Indeed, much of their work still seems fresh. Yet they remain pretty much unknown, despite the ubiquity and influence of their work.

Modern designers -- some of them, anyway -- have had better luck. Target has devoted whole departments to the work of Michael Graves and Phillippe Starck, automakers highlight J Mays (Ford) and Chris Bangle (BMW) and chic hotels trumpet the credits of their interior designers.

So perhaps we should note the names of the "Robots" makers: director Chris Wedge, production designer William Joyce, art director Steve Martino and the whole group of talents at Blue Sky Studios.