Philippe Starck on technology...

Modern Man finds the irony, BS, and hypocrisy displayed by Philippe Starck in this designboom/Haworth article/ad to be spectacular.


[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/94004870[/vimeo]

‘you know, when my partners asked me to design a sofa, I said, ‘no way. it’s old. it’s obsolete. it’s useless.’ for me it is historically something for bourgeois people. it was not really my world, but times have changed. now, there are a lot of new technologies that are so light that you can work, play, have entertainment anywhere, everywhere. the sofa is probably the biggest and most costly piece of the apartment, and it is making a comeback, standing as an island in the house where children can play in the morning, the wife can work during the lunch, the husband can come home at the end of the day, and continue to do what he started at the office.

I just finished designing a big boat for a very famous person, and when we were working on the furniture, the person asked me, ‘but, what is this?‘
‘it’s a desk.’
he said, ‘to do what?‘.
I said, ‘but, uh you, your children can open a book on this desk.’
he said, ‘a book? to do what?‘
I said, ‘sorry, to do what? it’s a book.’
‘but, we have iPads.’
and I said, ‘yes, you are right, you have an iPad, but the library?‘
he said, ‘who needs it?‘

that means this person said, ‘I don’t want a library, I don’t want a desk, I don’t want a book because we don’t need it.‘ it was a shock for me. I love books, but he was right. for years now, I have had my iPad, and I too no longer need more shelves or a library. times are changing.

it’s always the idea of understanding and identifying our fake needs, created by marketing, advertising, and our real needs created just by us. today, I prefer to read on my ebook – 72 grams of plastic – that keeps the trees where they are. I love books, but they are something of the last century. an ebook is lighter, more ecological, and also solves my old problem of constantly traveling and working everyday, and needing to bring all my books with me. now I have permanently, probably 40-50 books in my iPad. it’s done. no question.’ – philippe starck

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philippe starck has already responded to the prevalence of mobile devices in our lives. for example, his ‘D’E-light’ for flos is a task luminaire that double-functions as a place in which to charge one’s iPad and iPhone. the design seamlessly integrates our daily habits of making phone calls, networking or just browsing leisurely on our ‘portable machinery’, into our built environment in a beautiful way.

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From the same article:

there are these strange hybrids, or if you like I prefer one latin name ‘chimera’. you know the strange animals that are half percent lion, half percent dragon, and one small percentage, normally snake, or some other animal? well, I don’t like these chimeras. it’s again one aesthetic solution. I don’t think it’s possible to combine many different functions. I am not a fan of that. I like to sit on a beautiful chair, or I like to sit on a beautiful sofa. I like to work on a fantastic surface. I don’t talk about well-designed or ugly design… whether it’s a fantastic table, desk or what you want, but this kind of strange animals you know… you’re sitting, you drink a coffee, you type on your computer, or you laugh. come on, come on, what is that? what is that? it’s such an ugly future.‘ - piero lisson


Would Piero Lissoni call Starck’s ‘D’E-light’ a ‘chimera’ or “ugly design”?

I find the irony, BS and hypocrisy displayed by Philippe Starck in pretty much every project he does.

Hmmm… Which “very famous person” could that possibly be?

I’m not convinced that the iPad story is even true; apparently Jobs was a big proponent of minimising his kid’s time on iPad and getting them to read books instead.

He has designed a few other mega yachts. The funny thing is the sofa is too bourgeois but not the yacht. Who doesn’t have a sofa?

In the end, just Starck having fun and being provocative to get some PR. I recently redid a few bathrooms and picked out some sinks and toilets and unbeknownst to me when I first selected them in the showroom, they were all designed by Starck’s studio. They do some solid work.

Modern Man is aware of other of his other mega yacht designs and agrees that the sofa comment is one part of the irony and nonsense. Modern Man believes Starck was employing a bit of slight of hand as part of his wider repertoire of bullshit artistry techniques.




But this paragraph is the shameless mother load:

it’s always the idea of understanding and identifying our fake needs, created by marketing, advertising, and our real needs created just by us. today, I prefer to read on my ebook – 72 grams of plastic – that keeps the trees where they are. I love books, but they are something of the last century. an ebook is lighter, more ecological, and also solves my old problem of constantly travelling and working everyday, and needing to bring all my books with me. now I have permanently, probably 40-50 books in my iPad. it’s done. no question.’

Modern Man agrees.

Jonathan Ive’s mansion is also a very odd juxtaposition to Starck’s comments.

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Modern Man believes Nobody (Nobody is Modern Man’s life partner) should believe a word that comes from Starck’s mouth.

To be fair, those pics are from the realtor, likely staged fore sale by the realtor when Ives bought it in 2012.

Sketchgrad would like to make you aware that Philippe Starck is currently hiring for senior and junior positions. So those of us inclined to do so could give him a piece of our minds, no matter what your experience level is

https://www.dezeenjobs.com/job/senior-designers-at-philippe-starck

iab wonders out loud if modern man is hastily emailing his resume and portfolio at this very time.

Modern Man would be quite qualified if not for a lack of requisite creative fluency in the French language. Bullshitting in French and English?

“Must be creative and fluent in French and English.”

Modern Man is amused that Philippe Starck’s name is misspelled in French in the ad.

“Phillippe Starck recherche pour son studio à Paris:”

I’m fluent in French, but creative in English. Damn it.

iab wonders again out loud if modern man bought rosetta stone late last night so he can dream in french.

I find myself agreeing with Modern Man’s views on Monsieur Starck.

This particular quote is fairly ignorant, but likely just a line dropped to garner some PR.

standing as an island in the house where children can play in the morning, the wife can work during the lunch, the husband can come home at the end of the day, and continue to do what he started at the office.

Because wives don’t work outside the home. Right.

(Full disclosure, this is the case in my home, but not everyone’s. Daycare is just waaaay too expensive.)

I picture him sitting at a desk with an open book turning pages looking at pictures, like he’s 5 years old. I also find it interesting that he needs to bring ALL his books with him to work. Every. Day. All 40-50.

A book is not a music album Philippe, you are confusing the selling pitch of the ipAd and ipOd.

For the past 50 years people have been sitting in sofas watching this thing “Television”, but Philippe wouldn’t know that since he and his world view are stuck in the 50’s. But even then - hell not even 5 years ago before the iPad - people didn’t need libraries on f-in BOATS!

If I had a yacht, I would just get the latest copy of the Guardian Weekly dropped on board via helicopter. Then again, this explains why I don’t have a yacht.

Modern Man too no longer needs Phillipe Starck books and bookshelves. Times are changing.

Starck reminds me of the second act of a body swap comedy like “Freaky Friday” - he’s the eight year old boy in his dad’s body, and his dad is a not very successful designer, but eight year old Starcks boyish enthusiasm and crazy ideas charms the boss and he becomes a huge hit - cue spinning newspapers and montage of magazine covers.