philippe starck: 'design for life' reality TV series
‘design for life’ is a new reality TV program, which started on 14 september on BBC2. philippe starck has achieved great celebrity worldwide for his long and diverse career but has been introduced to the british audience as uncomfortable ‘french designer of hotels, transparent louis XV-style chairs and iconic lemon squeezers’.
the aim of the series, according to starck, is no less than to create an ‘english style’. he thinks that the brits haven’t had a new national design aesthetic since terence conran opened his first branch of habitat in the early 1960s. ‘I shall open ze zip of myself and say ‘now take what you want’. ‘in ‘design for life’ he’s almost a parody, and speaks in the most elaborate accented english. ‘I am a sort of new bottle-opener‘, is his way of describing the mentoring of talent. ‘you don’t make good design if you think about design’, he continues, ‘you make good design if you speak about life, sex, flesh, sweat.’ (in short: to understand the subject, you need to have lived a bit.)
he continued to pontificate ‘with a song a singer can change the world, a political man can change the world with a law... us it is with a chair, a table, a toilet brush.’ then he rolled up for work on a motorbike and kissed the candidates. the paradox is that starck owes his gigantic reputation to innovation, yet the series itself is more formulaic. twelve eager candidate designers, seven men and five women, were chosen on the basis of works sent to starck – he had chosen them purely on the basis of the paper drawings (one proposing a light bulb shaped like a noose, another a vertical, screw-in coffin to save space in cemeteries) and did not even want to know their names or genders.
in the program starck sets them creative tasks, and each week he eliminates the weakest. the winner becomes part of starck’s ‘tribe’, he/she will be invited to his HQ in paris to join his team for a six-month placement. the driving idea behind the series was to be real and he tried to take a subject that’s normally deemed to be niche and broadened its appeal. in this first episode the designers had to go to a supermarket and pick items on the themes: ecology OR function OR female/male, choosing one useful and one useless product. to do so, they received €100, which they had to be spent within the hour on the two products that they believed to illustrate the themes best.
the show is screened on BBC2 over the coming weeks. those of you in the UK can see the first episode here – but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be viewable to the rest of the world yet.
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if i’m not from uk where i can find it ?
should imagine it will be on youtube or daily motion at some point…
Hanna’s probably right, UK’s Project Catwalk episodes were on youtube as well. Still if someone finds it, let us know!
this show is a pile of shite. Starck isnt even a good designer, hes a fake
Can I get a link to watch this in Ireland any one??
you tube does not seem to have it..
any link for outside of the UK ?
there is nothing on youtube yet !
nothing yet !
Starck is without doubt on a downward trajectory in terms of his career. From once announcing that ‘Design is Dead’ now to this, an apprentice style show where contestants aim to please him. In the show he slammed the UK design scene for not having any characters, then he goes onto dis the celebrity culture. It will be a good show to watch if only to act as a warning for designers, as to not become like him. Don’t get me wrong in the 80-90’s his sculptural designs were the epitome of design and made him a worthy household name. The world has changed and so have his designs. His name, which used to be discreetly marked under his products, is now shamelessly plastered on the front of his now highly functional designs. He is still the huge hypocrite he always was, but a hugely enjoyable character to watch.
He is right about one thing though. Tomorrow will be less. Less Starck.
it’s TV fun.
at thebox.bz you can download the first episode!
you have to sing up, but it is free.
have fun, i know i will!
Glad to Phillippe is clearly as mad as I thought he woudl be!
Whatever you think, for me it`s inspirational, thoughtful
and it gives you something that you can`t see every day. It`s not Philippe Starck is the subject behind all this 🙂
Does anyone know:
In the show mentioned above, there are floor standing desk lamps situated above each of the individual desks in the School of Design classroom. Who designed them and what are they called?
Many thanks
Here is the first episode:
[url=http://vimeo.com/6604817] design for life on vimeo [/url]
all the ideas in this show were complete crap. not going to watch this again – BORing.
Is this really meant to be the best of young British Designers?
Whilst studying product design 10 years ago the talent and ideas were far superior to the dribble created so far on this show. Has Stark picked this talent to show the UK design scene in a bad light?
Yeah this is kinda good and bad.
Good because there aren’t many programs like this on tv at the moment and it kind of gets that design bug inside me going again but bad because there is no talent whatsoever amongst those students that have been chosen.
I too would love to know exactly how these candidates were chosen.
I was really surprised by the poor quality of candidates. Something is going wrong in design education when you see graduates who are not able to grow beyond their college training. The kind of designers who are great in college never seem to be able to deal with the real world. There is far too much emphasis on abstract intellectuallism and not enough on the practicalities. Design is a type of vocation and is best served in an apprenticeship but unfortunately, vocational training has unfairly been given a bad name in our vain pursuit of the knowledge economy. Knowing lots of stuff is no subsitute to actually being the right stuff.
HUGH, THERE ARE ONLY A FEW STANDOUTS IN ANY AREA OF LIFE. DON’T EXPECT THEM AT EVERY CORNER. AS FOR STARCK HE IS A TRUE VISIONARY AND IF YOU EVER HAVE THE OPERTUNITY TO MEET HIM YOU WILL FEEL HIS ENERGY HIS COMMITMENT TO DESIGN AND HIS PASSION FOR PEOPLE AND HIS DESIRE TO SHARE HIS KNOWLEDGE WITH THEM, STARCK DOESN’T HAVE A PROBLEM TAKING RISKS. GOOD BAD OR INDIFFERENT, HE ONE OF THE BEST AND WE SHOULD LEARN ALL WE CAN FROM HIM WHILE HE IS LIVING NOT WHEN HE IS GONE. (STAR)CK
Superb programme, very inspiring to see Starck discuss his way of thinking and found my self nodding in agreement at his philosophies to life. However, huge disappointment to see such poor candidates and embarrassed to be British.
As a license payer I am glad this is not available to those outside the UK simply because we pay a TV tax to watch and have such shows. If you want to watch pay like the rest of us that’s how such quality programmes are made in the UK.
Hi ,how to applicate for this compitision….
Any info?
Tanks Lucy
In response to ModernDesign2120, I totally agree with you in regards to Starck’s unique energy, talent and approach to design. I’m a huge admirer of him. But I felt sorry for Starck in trying to deal with some of the awful work presented on this show. My problem is with the approach of design education which I think is out of touch with reality and so produces the kind of graduates that we see on this TV show. It is obvious that the young designers are talented and dedicated but I think that their training has stunted and coralled their confidence and creativity. No wonder Starck is having such a hard time with them.
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