Philippe Starck: Design for Life.

Mankind, ethicality, sustainability and ecology. What do these words mean to you? To Philippe Starck these are the elements of a successful design. In the television series "Design for Life" twelve young and ambitious designers compete for work experience with Philippe Starck himself at his agency in Paris.


For me, the main focus of this series was not the aspiring designers and their attempts to impress Starck. What caught my attention and started to make me think was; what goes on in Starck's mind and how he is able to design such influential and successful products. This is shown through the tasks he sets for the designers and how he responds to their said tasks. As previously mentioned ethicality, sustainability, ecology and beneficial to mankind are elements that he believes creates good design and expects the competitors to share his vision. This showed me that many factors must be taken into thought as a new design is to be created, through the process of designing a new product many things may change the course and outcome thus designers needing feedback. As Philippe Starck critiques the designs of the contestants, his harsh and seemingly cold responses seem not to phase the designers. I questioned this myself but came to the conclusion that when it comes to life and reality, there will never be sugar-coating in a real design firm. Watching how Starck reacts to designs and his comments has impacted me in a way that when I design future products I, myself will ask the same questions and critique in a similar manner to improve.


Another thing that was brought up in the series was that Starck's designs were unconventional and non-functional. That stumped me when I first noticed it, shouldn't good design do what it was meant to be designed for in a manner that would be appreciated and comfortable? Starck's philosophy is quite simple really; Simplicity and Necessity. He designs for what is needed in the world today and not of design trends that are in and out of season. I believe that his philosophy is almost perfect and just what we need in society these days. Simplicity and necessity in design that is not affected by trends of marketing. However, I still do not agree with the OPTION of the design to be functional or not, I stand by the idea of all good design must be functional in a way it was designed for.


Watching Starck and his 'tribe' trial the contestants has shown me how a successful designer thinks and feels towards design which has allowed me to adjust my vision of design and how good design is created. Starck is an amazing designer and I would definitely love to just sit down and pick his brains a little more in order to gain more insight into the design world but for now, the videos have sparked an interest in his work and will lead me into discovering more about Philippe Starck and design for life.