Thursday, September 17, 2009

Design for Life with Philippe Starck

I know, I know, it’s been ages since I last was here! But fear not, I have not forgotten The work – actually the homework for the design school – has been taking every minute of my free time over the last few weeks… but more about it later.

First, let me share with you the amazing news – a new series has just started on the BBC and it is about product design! This has been my first passion – applied art and product designs have been my passions even before I started thinking about full-blown interior design. I find it amazing how everything that surrounds us has been designed by someone even if we don’t think about it, and that – as opposed to fine arts – an object of beauty can be also an object of function.

But – back to the topic: the amazing, the great, the best, the ingenious, the inspiring, the genious Philippe Starck is hosting ‘Design for Life‘, a program about 12 young Brits spending a few weeks in Starck’s design agencyin Paris in hope that one of them can be the future of design in the UK. The main prize is a 6-month placement at Starck’s, but even those ten weeks are more than any designer could ever dream of, so all the best to the participants and let’s hope we’ll see some great designs! You can see the first episode here.

And if you don’t know what Starck designed, here are some of the iconic objects:

Philippe_Starck_Privé_Collection

Miss Lacy by Philippe Starck

Philippe Starck Gun Collection

Philippe Starck - Juicy Salif

Philippe Starck Louis Ghost Chair

Voxan Café Racer Super Naked by Philippe Starck

Philippe Starck Holly All Vase

DRIADE BY PHILIPPE STARCK

What I really liked is his design philosophy, or rather life philosophy, some of it we could observe already in the first episode. As he said, ‘we are not artists‘. What designers do, or should do,  is to create functional and sustainable products for the masses. Also interesting was how important to him the history behind a product is. What is it made of is an obvious question, but is it functional enough? Who made it? How? Does it make sense? Does it show the way forward? The designer need to think really outside of the final product. He controversially criticised a lovely bicycle brought as an example of an ecologically sound product by one of the contestants. It cost only €90, which is why Starck dismissed it as a product most probably done by people who earn almost nothing. How else can you create this complicated piece of technology for so little? Stay tuned for next episodes!

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Uwaga uwaga, na BBC wlasnie zaczal sie swietny program. Design for Life, prowadzony przez genialnego i wyjatkowego projektanta ktorym jest Philippe Starck (jezeli nie bardzo wiesz o kim mowie, zerknij na zdjecia kilku z jego niezapomnianych projektow powyzej). W tym programie, 12 mlodych Brytyjczykow spedzi kilka tygodni w Paryzu w firmie projektowej Starck’a, a my wszyscy mamy nadzieje ze dzieki temu narodzi sie nowy talent w UK. Nagroda glowna jest 6-miesieczna pozycja w agencji, choc juz te kilka tygodni sa wyjatkowa nagroda…

Sztuka uzytkowa byla moim marzeniem jeszcze zanim zaczelam myslec o projektowaniu wnetrz. Uwielbiam to ze wszystko co nas otacza jest dzielem jakiegos projektanta (czy zdajemy sobie z tego sprawe czy nie), oraz ze w przeciwienstwie do np. malarstwa, piekne przedmioty spelniaja rowniez funkcje.

No ale wracajac do tematu, spodobalo mi sie ze Starck od samego poczatku przekazuje swoja filozofie. Ucina niefunkcjonalne projekty mowiac ‘nie jestesmy artystami!’, za misje uznajac tworzenie funkcjonalnych i ekologicznych produktow dla mas. Wazna dla niego tez jest historia produktu. Z czego jest zrobiony? Jak? Przez kogo? Czy jest odpowiednio funkcjonalny? Projektant powinien myslec duzo szerzej niz o samym koncowym efekcie. Ciekawie wyrazone zostalo to w momencie gdy jeden z uczestnikow przyprowadzil rower jako przyklad dobrego ekologicznego produktu. No tak, ale skoro ten skomplikowany technologicznie i wysoki jakosciowo rower kosztowal jedynie €90, czy ci robotnicy co go zbudowali mogli zarobic wiecej niz grosze? A wiec: polecam pierwszy odcinek (do obejrzenia tu) - i czekajcie cierpliwie na ciag dalszy!



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