Documentary films help you better understand the thinking of the world’s best designers and get inspired by their ideas.

In this collection, we have collected many documentaries about design and about designers: from street artists to world-famous industrial designers.

BBC: The Genius of Design

“The Genius of Design” (BBC: The Genius of Design) is a project dedicated to those who, in modern conditions, are engaged in the improvement of products for various purposes, achieving harmony of content and form.

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BBC: How art created the world

A detailed documentary film about the history of art and, in particular, primitive art and the first anonymous artists of ancient civilizations. During five episodes of this film, the historian Nigel Spivey manages to visit the most remote corners of the world, where the peoples of the great ancient empires once lived.

Inside the Pantone color factory

Designers and artists around the world use Pantone color palettes on a daily basis to help make their chosen cyan color truly blue. Get behind the scenes of paint and palette production at the Pantone factory.

Faber-Castell pencil production

Film about the production of pencils by Faber-Castell at a factory in Germany.

Why man creates

Why Man Creates is a short animated documentary about the nature of creativity. The film won an Oscar.

Helvetica

Helvetica is a film about typography, graphic design and visual culture in general. Through the lens of the proliferation of a single typeface that turned 50 in 2007, the film explores the broader question of how type affects our lives.

Objectified

Incarnation is an independent feature-length documentary directed by Gary Hustwith that explores our difficult relationship with mass-produced objects and, as a result, with the people who designed them. This film is a look at the creative side of designing things, from toothbrushes to electronic devices.

Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight

The film explores the breadth of creativity of Milton Glazer, an eminent designer who, for many, personifies American graphic design. From newspaper and magazine design to interior design, logos and identity, famous prints, drawings, posters and paintings – the film covers the entire sphere of the great designer’s work.

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The digital revolution in art in the past decade has brought creative possibilities to an unprecedented scale. Where will such a trend lead – to an improvement in the quality of film, music and literature, to a new level of true talent, or to a digital ocean of mediocre mass culture?

Diana Vreeland – The Look Must Travel

A documentary about the “high priestess of fashion” Diana Vreeland, an iconic columnist and editor of fashion magazines. She has collaborated with publications such as Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, and has also curated exhibitions at the New York Metropolitan Museum. In 1965, her name was included in the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame.

Diana Vreeland was a rebel by nature, she had the inner freedom to do whatever she wanted. Her driving forces were passion, imagination and boundless fantasy.

Awards: Silver Hugo Award for Best Documentary at Chicago International Film Festival 2011 + Golden Hugo nomination; nomination for the John Schlesinger Prize at the Palm Springs International Film Festival 2012; nominated for the Dorian Prize for Documentary Film of the Year at the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association (GALECA) 2013. Participant of the 68th Venice International Film Festival 2011.

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The Universe of Keith Haring

Kristina Klausen’s documentary “Keith Haring’s Universe” is a vivid archival footage, the memories of his friends, colleagues and art fans, including Kenny Scharf, Yoko Ono and Tony Shafrazi.

Sign painters

The film is about signs. We see them every day, but often we do not pay any attention to them. Time-tested, hand-drawn signs are the product of a gripping 150 years of American history. Once it was an ordinary job, but now the work of an artist who paints signs has become highly specialized, requiring unique skills combined with technological complexities.

The art of theft

The film tells the story of Dr. Albert Barnes, who managed to collect a huge collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and early modern art works. Dr. Barnes’s entire collection is valued at over $ 25 billion!

Beautiful losers

Beautiful Losers is a film about young artists and designers who, although far from the world of traditional art, nevertheless influence it.

Urbanized

“Urbanized” is a documentary film about the problems and directions of urban development, about what makes some cities better than others.

Bauhaus: The Face of the 20th Century

The Bauhaus: The Face of the 20th Century, the film tells the story of the Bauhaus School of Architecture and Design, founded in Weimair in 1919, one of the most impressive educational movements in 20th century art. She has greatly influenced contemporary architecture, painting, sculpture, design and theater.

Food design

“Food Design” – the film tells about people working on the design of dishes and products. Every day, an army of thousands of specialists is working to ensure that food is tasty, smells good and looks cute and attractive.

Future by Design

Projected Future tells the story of a fundamentally new quality of life and a far-reaching vision of Jacques Fresco, a man many look at as the Leonardo da Vinci of our time. A contemporary of Albert Einstein and Buckmister Fuller, Jacques, a self-taught and futurist, often refers to himself as a “generalist” or multidisciplinary scientist involved in many interrelated fields of science.

The Art of Punk: Black Flag

A film about the legendary logo of the Black Flag group, which has become a symbol of punk culture.

The Modern Russian Design

“Contemporary Russian Design” is a documentary film dedicated to the last twenty years of design development in Russia. Includes special projects on graphic design, fashion design and industrial design.

Zeitgeist: Addendum

A documentary by Peter Joseph, a sequel to The Spirit of the Times. The film tells about the principle of functioning of the US Federal Reserve, about the American system of creating money, about the cooperation of transnational corporations with the CIA, analyzes the reasons for the corruption of society.

Exit through the souvenir shop

An iconic documentary about Banksy, the genius street artist of our time, filmed and directed by himself. Banksy is an infamous underground graffiti artist, political activist and filmmaker whose identity has yet to be revealed and is the subject of controversy in many quarters.

Jonathan Ive: Designer with a capital letter

In this film, we will tell you about the life path of Jonathan Ive – the man who created the look of all Apple products available today. His story is very fascinating, because Quince’s career consisted not only of continuous success. In the early nineties, he spent pointless years in his laboratory developing prototypes that did not generate interest in the then Apple executives.

Geniuses and villains. Andy Warhole

In the 1960s, Andy Warhol was one of America’s most famous painters. But the audience was attracted not so much by his work as by his lifestyle. Scandals, drugs, bold statements in the press – all this worked for the image of the king of pop art. It seemed that he was born and raised in this environment, where the atmosphere of crazy parties and eternal celebration reigned.

Cover photo: ShutterStock