THE "STARCK" TRUTH

second attempt of post, I hope this could be more clear.

I was quite surprised to see the deep face of Philippe Starck on the cover of "IO donna" (easily translated: "I woman" - a STRONG stance nowadays…) last Saturday. This magazine usually talks about fashion and lifestyle, but the Milan Design Week is very close. It's like everybody suddenly MUST talk about it...

The first peculiar thing was that Mr Starck is standing on a evident Karim Rashid pink background, a color that can be compared to the more famous "Blue Klein". And he was carrying a baby. His fourth baby, a girl called Justice. 

Rewind button: I want to explain you FIRST why I'm "studying" this man.

He his a famous designer and I've always looked at his production with curiosity but respecting a kind of safe zone. He is very controversial and not always approvable. This always prevented me from going crazy for his stuff, personally selecting my (few) favorites Starck creations, still not being convinced by the utility/coolness of a gun shape lamp.

Then I discovered a BBC serie called "Design for life", transmitted in Italy from January 2012 (but originally registered in 2009) that seemed to be very interesting.

< Design For Life follows the fortunes of 12 British design students as they battle it out to impress the enfant terrible of product design, Philippe Starck.> They moved to Paris and tried a lot to impress him, but in the end it was quite a failure and I really saw little creativity (from the youngsters side) and a lot of hysteria (from Starks' one). 

And finally I read the article, on "IO donna", where I was given the opportunity to analyze him again. 

The journalist tried to talk about Starck latest creations for the Design Week in Milan, but he suddenly stopped the journalist talking about more interesting things. You can find here the Italian interview. 

<The only possible future for the Design world is in heading for dematerialization.> A strong thought, I thought.  <More with less: this is what we must work for. Like the computers; they were first big as a building, but now they are smaller and smaller, as technology allows that> And then my favorite part:

<The destiny of the designers is producing services, not objects. We need actions, no more products>. The Western Economy is slowing down and Starck says: <no surprise for this, we already knew!>. <I would like to take distance from the materiality and to focus on action.> 

In the previous post I was too concentrated on my own ideas and forgot to go deepen in the research. Then "Anonymous" reproached me, and he/she was right. I'll try to explain myself better, again. 

1) I recognize the necessity to reduce the massive production typical of the Postmodernism. There is plenty of books talking about the proliferation of Images and of fake needs.

2) I appreciate Starck's idea of focusing on the design of actions, that means: organize the processes and find a way to manage people and resources already existing. I don't expect that a traditional designer should find solutions for a better humanity. It's evident that you cannot design a "process" in the same way you design a chair. This is not the kind of design to be presented in Milan.

3) I don't want to play the role of the designer, since I'm not. I'm keen on a lot of things, design is one of those, but it's not my primary interest nor competence.

4) I think that it could be useful to start thinking of a "design of the awareness", even if this should be a personal (and interior) design, to be done first on ourselves. As Anonimous said: <awareness may also mean that architects simply stop acting like designers> and I completely agree with him/her. The world is full of people doing others job (and others business).

5) I don't think I present myself as an auctoritas. If you read my blog you will find only advice on how to spend a good Sunday, not how to manage your life. 

Finally, the most important thing. I was interested by the interview, but did not went to check what Starck is going to present in Milan.
In the past, he contributed to augment the above-mentioned massive production of objects and stuff not always useful. We could say, he was really in the system. He even acted like an archi-star, that's true.
After reading the interview I thought that maybe something was changing. On "IO Donna" you  can read that the fourth child completely changed him, so... let's give him a try - I thought.

Anonimous was scandalized by the fact that he's going to present the new Kartell collection with Lenny Kravitz: "Yeah, that Lenny Kravitz".
Well, I didn't know there are others Lenny Kravitz, but I was more impressed by the kind of chair he's going to present...

Conclusion: it's always the same bla-bla, take big names... add some fur... that's all folks!
Epic failure Mr Starck...

ps. I know he's also presenting a eco-veicle and a bicycle, but this chair is sufficiently shameful, in my opinion.


In the previous post, Anonimous said:

awareness may also mean that architects simply stop acting like designers. please, stop. it's confusing. you're not designers, we're not architects. if you are keen on design, that's ok, but don't speak like an auctoritas. you are an architect. 

oh, sorry. to design services is a completely different matter from designing products. and, Starck has no right to speak about the need of awareness, since he is the guy who screwed it all up, acting like an archi-star. if you don't know, he's presenting a collection for Kartell with Lenny Kravitz. 

Yeah, that Lenny Kravitz.