Contemporary Designer - Philippe Starck

Philippe Starck

Philippe Starck was born on the 18th January 1949 in Paris. He is a French designer, who also worked as an architect. Starck is very well known for his outstanding designs such as; interior design, household design, boat, watches... his influences are mostly from his father who was an aircraft engineer. He studied in Ecole Nissim de Comando, Paris. In 1968 opened his first company which produces flatable objects. In the 1970s, Starck started to create and design interiors and two of his first projects were La Main Bleu done in 1976 and Les Bains-Douches done in 1978, which are both nightclubs, which gain a lot of attention especially the President Francois Mitterrand. Then the same President asked him to make a refurbishment to his own Private apartments named the Élysée Palace (1983–84), in Paris. This refurbishment made an increase to his popularity.

Then he started to design and produce households such as lamps, chairs, kitchen utensils and such other thing like motorbikes, wind-turbines electric cars, hotels, and boats. Starck wants to make the world a better place to live by creating innovative designs which most are expensive and some are at a good price to reach everyone’s pocket. He also wanted to have the element of humour in his designs.

Juicy Salif juicer

His main characteristics which could be found in every design he does are fluid lines, organic forms and playful designs. His designs are beauty which sometimes means wealth. "above all he is a man of honesty, in the purest tradition of the Renaissance artists."

He is also known for the Juicy Salif juicer for the company Alessi, watches for Fossil, television design for Thomson Multimedia, luggage design for Samsonite, “Urban Fittings” for Decaux, office furniture for Vitra, eyeglasses for Alain Mikli and the Optical Mouse for Microsoft.

Then he is mostly known for buildings such as “Asahi Beer Hall (1990) in Tokyo, an austere, block like granite building topped with a bulbous orange shape resembling a flame, and the Unhex Nani-Nani office building (1989), also in Tokyo, which has been described as a biomorphic shed.”

In 1997 he got an award from Harvard Graduate School of Design for ‘Excellence in Design’.

Miss Lacy chair

'Miss Lacy' chair, by Philippe Starck.

This is an example of Starck’s design of a chair. It is made out of stainless steel. It is originally inspired from natural leaves of botanical. It is very elegant because of the material used; it makes it look more expensive. As I looked at this chair, immediately William Morris came up to mind because he used to use natural leaves pattern for his designs and maybe Starck was influenced by him. The design is also influenced from Baroque Art. Technique used for this chair is melting and casting which is an ancient technique.

The Pibal bike

The Pibal Bike

This bike is designed by Starck and it is manufactured by Peugeot. It was created to encourage people use these bikes instead of cars which is better for the environment and people’s health. It has an automatic two-speed hub, comfortable seat and also a part to rest your foot as it makes it look like a motor scooter. From the beginning of this year, about 3,000 or 4,000 bikes were expected to be manufactured by the Peugeot Company.

In my opinion, this bike is very unique as I’ve never seen this kind of bike before. Its original colours are yellow and gray, which reminded me of Pop Art. Pop Art has the characteristics of bright colours sometimes mixed with black or gray and this bike has almost the same characteristics of colour. 


MAMA Shelter Hotel - Interior Design 

The MAMA shelter hotel Marseille, Paris interior is all designed by Philippe Starck. He designed this hotel in an innovative way that it is welcoming and comfortable to all cultures. It is full of a mix of art and furniture which is a very interesting aspect in his design. This hotel includes a live stage, game area, dining hall, boutique, meeting room, etc... which has six floors. As I can see from the images it has a positive mood which comes from the bright colours used. Again in these designed interiors I notice that it has the characteristics of pop art from the colours used and from the look of the ceiling because it has a lot of writings which might Pop Art had been the influencing source for this project. For me this is a splendid talent to just combine and mix furniture with Art. Everything in this hotel designed by him is different in a way we don't usually see them.

"Elegance and honesty are two mandatory parameters for any human production." – Philippe Starck's quote.

My Overall Thoughts: Philippe Starck is an innovative designer who changed everything in his own designs. I really like and admire his designs because he does things which are very unusual in a modern way. He is able to create designs for every generation or for all generations in one design. While I made my research about him I got to know his style more and I never thought that he could design everything such as small things to huge things. Designs which I didn't really like were of the cars, I didn't find them attractive at all.

 Bibliography:

Starck, Jonathan Wingfield, January 2013, Biography -  PHILIPPE STARCK SHORT BIOGRAPHY, [online] Available at: http://www.starck.com/en/philippe_starck/biography/ [Accessed 21 April 2014]. 

Design Whitin Reach, Anon, n.d., Philippe Starck France (1949). [online] Available at: http://www.dwr.com/category/designers/r-t/philippe-starck.do [Accessed 21 April 2014].

Britannica, John Zukowsky,n.d., Philippe Starck, [online] (Last update 18^th June 2013) http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1233446/Philippe-Starck [Accessed 21 April 2014].

Trustmedesigner.com, Onrej Chudy, 26^th November 2013, The first twenty Pibal Bicycles by Philippe Starck arrive in France. [online] http://trustmedesigner.com/2013/11/26/the-first-twenty-pibal-bicycles-by-philippe-starck-arrive-in-france/ [Accessed 21 April 2014]. 

Designcollector.com, Arsney Vesnin, 22^nd February 2013, Philippe Starck’s PIBAL an Urban Hybrid Bike/Scooter, [online] http://designcollector.net/philippe-starcks-pibal-an-urban-hybrid-bikescooter/ [Accessed 21 April 2014]. 

Design Boom, Danny Hudson, 22^nd September 2012, philippe starck: MAMA shelter hotel, Marseille, [online] http://www.designboom.com/architecture/philippe-starck-mama-shelter-hotel-marseille/ [Accessed 21 April 2014].