Philippe Starck

Philippe Starck may be one of the most prolific living designers in the history of design. It is very possible that you have an object, tool or item designed by Starck in your home or passed through your hands. Philippe Starck is an industrial designer who was born in 1949. He studied at the French school of Nissim de Camondo. In 1968 he founded his first company, with which he produced inflatable products and in 1969 he became the Artistic Director of the Cardin firm.

A little later, in 1974 he would settle in the United States, returning in 1976 to Paris, where he would screen his first Night Club, La Main Bleu, and the nightclub Les Bains-Douches. The company Starck product will be founded a year before the 80’s.

La Main Bleu interior

It was in this decade that Starck developed the renovation of the private apartments of French President Mitterrand (Palais de l’Élysée), carried out the interior design project for Café Costes in Paris and Café Manin in Tokyo, and also developed the hotel decoration project. Royalton of New York and projected the plans for the premises of the French cutlery company Laguiole. Many of the referent projects bear the signature of Starck, Teatriz, and Ramses in Madrid and the Hotel Paramount are named after him.

Café Manin en Tokio

There are also watches such as those developed for FOSSIL, the PH at the beginning, conceptual digital clocks with a minimal and clean design.

Stark has designed everything from furniture and objects to motorcycles such as the Aprilia 6.5 or even boats like the Fiamma, developed in the late ’80s for the company Asahi. There are also many futuristic concepts that bear Starck’s signature that has not been created more than digitally and is believed to be concluded.

Philippe Starck collection for FOSSIL

Firms such as Kartell, Dría, Cassina, Devon, Barovier and Tosso, film Italia or Alessi, among others, have in their catalogs items of success in sales that Philippe Starck has designed. Even with all its contributions to design, perhaps its most iconic object and reference is the Juicy Salif (Alessi sells this article), a juicer and a reference of industrial design that has generated many debates. Some say it is inspired by a spider and others even in one of the ships that Alex Raymond imagined for his hero Flash Gordon. The fact is that Starck devised and raised the first sketch on a paper napkin while eating in a restaurant and had to squeeze a lemon on a plate of squid.

Starck has the privilege of having his works exhibited as a reference to design in the MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art. La Marie chair (Kartell), Juicy Salif (Alessi), Lola Mundo chair, Peninsula chair or Dr. No (Dríade) are permanently exhibited there among many other creations.

We allow ourselves to finish with this brief summary of the designer reproducing a wise reflection on the design and its contribution that Philippe Starck said…

Nowadays the problem is not to produce more to sell more. The fundamental question is the right of the product to exist. And the designer has the right and the DUTY, first of all to wonder about the legitimacy of the product before affirming its existence. Depending on the answer you get, one of the most positive things a designer can do is REJECT any activity. But that is not always easy. However, it should do so when the object already EXISTS and works perfectly. The simple fact of repeating it would be a CORRUPTED act, with serious consequences that would EMPHASIZE the richness of the earth and EMBRUTE the minds of the people … We must replace beauty, which is a cultural concept, by goodness, which is a HUMANIST concept. The object must be of good quality, satisfy one of the key modern parameters, which is PERDACTIVITY. A good product is A PRODUCT THAT LASTS

Open chat
Welcome to Ibermaison.
How can we help you?