Philippe Starck

To start off, in order to be able to understand the design of Philippe Starck, one has to understand what was going around at the time and context of the French design in the late 1980s. At the era there were things which brought the International Gothic tradition,  aeronautical technology, the court intrigue and arts and crafts studios together all at once. Starck’s work is rooted in French sources. One has to even go further back than the 80s since Philippe Starck began even earlier, in the seventies.

According to Starck’s revolutionary principle in relation to European Industrial design: it is brand of the designer that is more important than the actual brand of the company that produced the product. He took full control of the media and his products were self-promotional.

Starck began his game from the New Italian Design in the 70s, however unlike any of these, his products were not experimental prototypes that were targeted for the few, but meant for mass production. It was Philippe Starck that launched poplar design. The success brought forward by the designs of this individual were huge and unexpected.

His success was on every sector in the design scene, including industrial design, architecture, interior design and electronics. According to his beliefs, Italian industrialists are unique since they seem to be more acknowledged with real quality and elegance.

Alessandro Mendini says that Philippe Starck is a phenomenon. The French philosopher Michel Onfray writes that Starck’s objects:

‘Create magic, they generate a  strange fascination, they produce both ease and malaise, they cause changes to take place in the atmosphere. They can be inviting or keep you at a distance, but they never leave you indifferent, not even when you just take a furtive peek at them’.

Juicy Salif

He announced that Starck’s projects are excuses for telling stories. Such projects like the Juicy Salif, his citrus-squeezer that was manufactured by Alessi. This object is not perhaps the most effective utensil but an outstanding way to  start a conversation. 

Maybe the reason behind his great achievement is the fact that he puts a lot of energy on the human being. People are interested in Starck’s objects even though his objects are not always functional, but they do so since they are seductive.  Khaslavsky and Shedroff believe that:

‘Seduction is a process. It gives rise to a rich and compelling experience that lasts over time’.

In accordance to what they say, the three most fundamental phases are enticement, connection and satisfaction. In order to demonstrate their theory they examined the citrus squeezer. This objects makes a promise to the buyer to make such an ordinary action of squeezing an orange, extraordinary. Raising also the status of the owner to a greater complexity. 

Among the range of talents that this man posses is the ability to use words and his objects to tell a story. This is what he did at his solo exhibition at the Centre Georges Pomidou. Starck is firm on the principle that design concerns life, and that it must be available to as many people as possible, and that is it meant to be used in everyday life and not just displayed in museums. In his exhibition he did not use his objects to carry his message, but instead talked directly to the public.

Starck posses also his own style, he says to himself. His style is instantly recognizable, even if each time a new design is displayed it is expressed in different manner. Even though his products are manufactured by different companies, all of his products unmistakably show his hallmark.

Louis Ghost

This design is comfortable, transparent and a stackable armchair. It is a bold example of inserted polycarbonate in a single mould. He says:

‘After Marie a chair I consider to be almost perfect, but that perhaps it is precisely because of its extreme purity is a bit too abstract, I started toying with the idea of making a one mould polycarbonate chair; a highly technological, stackable, totally transparent chair, but with more humanity’.

Louis Ghost is the perfect example of Starckian Democratic Design. This design reminded me of the Panton chair. They do not resemble each other, however, as Panton experimented with plastic and managed to create a chair with a single mould, the same did Starck with the use of polycarbonate.

Gun Lamp

When the lamp, with its gilt alumininium base shaped like a Kalashnikov, was exposed, it was introduced with a leaflet written by Philippe Starck himself. It explained the symbolic value of the project.

‘To life, to Death… life itself doesn’t have much value-life and death became mistaken for one another, almost by accident, with no importance… a civilization has been created so that life can live’.

He went on to say ‘weapons are our new icons. Our lives are only worth a bullet. The Gun collection is nothing other than a sign of the times. We have the symbols we deserve. Glory to our dictators, to life and to death’.

The Gun lamp was designed in three varieties: a small table lamp with a base in the shape of a Beretta. This signified the weapons manufactured in Europe; a large table lamp with a stem that looked like a Kalashnikov AK-47; and, a floor lamp with a support that resembles an M-16 rifle, indicating weapons made in the United States. The gilt finish on the weapons is likely to suggest the relationship between war and money, furthermore, the black lampshade represents death and the tiny crosses carved inside the black diffuser are an invitation to remember the dead.

Bibliography:

Minimum Design, 24 ORE Cultura. Philippe Starck