Photo: starck.comA rich career with more than 10,000 creations, tireless inventiveness, and creativity in design, which characterize both aesthetics and practicality, are just some of the reasons why Philippe Starck is one of the most distinguished designers of the second half of the 20th century and is considered one of the cornerstones of modern design history.
PHILIPPE STARCK / PHOTO: STARCK.FR
“Subversive, ethical, ecological, political, humorous… this is how I see my duty as a designer,” says Starck, who has followed these ideals in design since 1968, when he launched his first company in Paris. Although his first business did not have much commercial success (he was engaged in inflatable furniture made of balloons), it helped him draw attention to himself and stand out as a new, young hope in the design scene at that time. It may not be a coincidence that Starck made his debut in the famous ’68 years, and that traces of rebellion and revolutionaryism continued to accompany his work throughout his career.
That is why we would not be wrong if, when asked what his limits are, we answered that he simply does not have them. He proved this when he was hired by a private space research company, Axiom, to design the interior of the world's first commercial space station and to decorate the interior of the spacecraft, which is scheduled to launch in 2024. Starck found the inspiration for this design in the position that astronauts occupy in zero gravity, which he associated with the position of the fetus in the womb. That is why it is not surprising that the interior of the spacecraft resembles the shape of an egg, with soft walls and oval windows, and the whole experience of floating in space is completed by LED lamps.
But let's go back to Earth, where we also have no less impressive Starck projects. In the mid-1970s, Starck worked intensively on the interior design of numerous clubs, restaurants, and cafes, among which the most memorable were the other Parisian clubs, La Main Bleue and Les Baines Douches.
Since the 1980s, his career has entered a new phase, when he started designing for hotels and when his large-scale projects for which the whole world knows him today, such as New York's Royalton and Paramount hotels, were born. However, he reached the peak of his fame with a project that connected him with French President Francois Mitterrand, for whom he designed an apartment on the Champs Elysees in 1982.
Collaborations with renowned brands such as Alessi, Kartell, Microsoft, and Puma abound in his portfolio. His countless creative and poetic creations, ranging from traditional sofas and chairs to toothbrushes and various gadgets aimed to make life easier, demonstrate that the French designer is equally successful in making items, not just in interior design.
Thus, we will equally remember Philippe Starck for the Louis Ghost chair, completely transparent, made of polycarbonate, which experts in the world of design rated as one of the best designed chairs of all time, but also for the first A.I. chair in the world, designed with the help of artificial intelligence, which Starck, in collaboration with Cartell and Autodesk, presented at the Salone del Mobile in Milan in 2019.
Thus, Starck proved once again that the goal of his work is the "democratization of design", a philosophy that seeks to demonstrate that design should be subordinated to man and help as many people as possible, regardless of social class.
By: Tamara Djokić
