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MHS Library | Philippe Starck

About Philippe Starck

   
 
 
Philippe Starck is a French designer known since the start of his career in the 1980s for his interior, product, industrial and architectural design including furniture. Wikipedia
Born18 January 1949 (age 68 years), Paris, France

« I like to open the doors of the human brain » - Philippe Starck

Philippe Starck biography by Jonathan Wingfield January 2010

“Subversive, ethical, ecological, political, humorous... this is how I see my duty as a designer.” Philippe Starck

The thousands of projects - complete or forthcoming - his global fame and tireless protean inventiveness should never distract from Philippe Starck’s fundamental vision: Creation, whatever form it takes, must improve the lives of as many people as possible. Starck vehemently believes this poetic and political duty, rebellious and benevolentpragmatic and subversive, should be shared by everyone and he sums it up with the humour that has set him apart from the very beginning: “No one has to be a genius, but everyone has to participate.”

His precocious awareness of ecological implications, his enthusiasm for imagining new lifestyles, his determination to change the world, his love of ideas, his concern with defending theintelligence of usefulness – and the usefulness of intelligence – has taken him from iconic creation to iconic creation... From the everyday products, furniture and lemon squeezers, to revolutionary mega yachts, hotels that stimulate the senses, phantasmagorical venues and individual wind turbines, he never stops pushing the limits and criteria of contemporary design. His dreams are solutions, solutions so vital that he was the first French man to be invited to the TED conferences (Technology, Entertainment & Design) alongside renowned participants including Bill Clinton and Richard Branson.

Inventor, creator, architect, designer, artistic director, Philippe Starck is certainly all of the above, but more than anything else he is an honest man directly descended from the Renaissance artists. 

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Starck's in conversation

"What I'm interested in is not design, it's our life as part of the human species, our ongoing efforts to achieve progress, evolution and change."

Read more about Starck's ideas and thoughts here. Starck explains why he's not motivated by money but by good design.

Design and Destiny - TED talk

Product design by Philippe Starck