Everything about design is drama. The process, the people, the product, all filled with drama. So I suppose it's a natural fit as the subject of a reality television series (as if reality television can somehow be associated with the word natural).
Leading lemmings into the fire is non other than Phillpe Stark.
Philippe Starck's School of Design, a working title, will see the Frenchman—whose work spans everything from windmills to chairs, hotels to toothbrushes and yachts to beer bottles—invite 25 would-be designers to bid for one of 10 places on a design course in Paris.
Pity, I would have called the show: French Eye for The Anything That Can Be Sold In Target Design Stooge.
The successful applicants will be given the chance to demonstrate their abilities by working on real design projects, with Starck gradually whittling down the class. At the end of the course at least one student will be rewarded with a six-month placement at Starck's design agency in the French capital.
What the...call the kettle hypocrite...back in May—as in just a few months ago—Stark declared that design is dead, a "dreadful form of expression", and then went on to regret the part in his life wherein he designed everything from cars to catheters.
I was a producer of materiality and I am ashamed of this fact. Everything I designed was unnecessary. In future there will be no more designers. The designers of the future will be the personal coach, the gym trainer, the diet consultant. I will definitely give up in two years' time. I want to do something else, but I don't know what yet. I want to find a new way of expressing myself...design is a dreadful form of expression.
So I guess when you're having a pity party...when the face staring back at you in the Phillipe Stark Bathroom Mirror™ is old, frumpy and is designed with more gray hairs than desired the thing to do is to have a heart-to-heart with the International press and then seek out a television deal.
Touché Monsieur Starck, touché.
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They got to him, man. The same people that gave Marley cancer.
You know, I recall seeing a little blurb about Starck declaring design's death on the cover of a magazine in our office's restroom. I read that line and immediately said "Starck is so full of shit..."
I guess there is some irony in saying that in a stall...
*glipfphp*!!! Nice one, gb.
I would say that Starck's deal with the devil has lapsed, and, having no recourse to continue, is calling the industry a cad.
I could care less if he says design is dead. Dude, if you need another one-in-a-million chances to make such an impact on the world, the devil is still there waiting for you.
btw, he looks "sick" in those pics. Sad really, he's made such vast inroads to the concept of design to people who couldn't see it from a …toaster.
"Starck is so full of shit..."
I guess there is some irony in saying that in a stall...
That is priceless.
Starck has probably done worse to design talking about it than by designing everything that could be sold. It's a shame because he's talented the way very few men are — spend a few minutes witnessing him work, without any press around, and you'll be able to tell.
He's always been full of shit and articulate about it. At first it was a way for him to get noticed, a communication strategy of some sort, and I guess his body of work and swiss bank account woudn't be the same had he not behaved so. Now that he doesn't need any attention to get work, I'd say he's just having fun, playing a game between the media and his public personna, even if it means collateral damage for the design community. It's hard to be professionally associated to this guy. It's hard to have your work taken seriously by the industry when the _alpha designer _ says : “Nowadays you fart and you are a designer”. The man deserves an exile, but for our sake I hope this show will be a display of talent and good work.
Speaking of poop, what I'd like to see is an interview of Starck by Triumph... Ca serait fantastique !