Contemporary designer research and analysis

Philippe Starck is one of the most famous designers in the world, this is in part related to his prolific and untiring work. Starck was born in 1949 in Paris. Starck though biographically elusive has given his father credit for the inspiration he needed to expand his desire to change the items in our lives into items that change the world. (ND: (http://users.design.ucla.edu/~averyb/desma24/starck/bio.html) in a quote from his brief but official biography on the official Starck website the journalist Ed Mae Cooper contends that: "Starck recalls spending his childhood underneath his father's drawing boards; hours spent sawing, cutting, gluing, sanding, dismantling bikes, motor cycles and other objects. Endless hours, a whole lifetime spent taking apart and putting back together whatever comes to hand, remaking the world around him." (ND: (http://www.philippe-starck.com/)

Starck had a brief career in formal design education during the 1960s at Ecole Nissim de Camondo in Paris but claims to be mostly self taught. His prolific career began in 1968 when he began producing inflatable objects, over several years this company evolved into the "Starck Product" company while on the side his claim to fame became interior design of a famous Paris nightclub (La Main Bleue) and beginning in 1982 as a furniture and interior designer for French President Mitterrand. His sublime designs from this work created a worldwide recognition for innovation and launched his career as a designer. (Unknown, ND: (http://users.design.ucla.edu/~averyb/desma24/starck/bio.html)

The variety of objects that Stark designs, as well as his stated inspiration for doing so is evident in his brief biography:

He captures the essential spirit of the sea for Beneteau, turns the toothbrush into a noble object, squeezes lemons but the " wrong " way, and even makes our TV sets more fun to be with when he brings his " emotional style " into Thomson's electronic world. He also takes time out to change our pasta, our ash-trays, lamps, toothbrushes, door handles, cutlery, candlesticks, kettles, knives, vases, clocks, scooters, motorcycles, desks, beds, taps, baths, toilets... In short, our whole life. A life that he finds increasingly fascinating, which has brought him now closer to the human body with clothes, underwear, shoes, glasses, watches, food, toiletries et al., (Cooper ND: (http://www.philippe-starck.com/)

The foundation of his work is determined by his stated desire to use the everyday objects that surround every person to create a difference in the manner in which we see and interact with our world.

He is tireless in changing the realities of our daily life, sublimating our roots and the deepest wellsprings of our being into his changes....still determined that his designs shall, as ever, respect the nature and the future of mankind. (Cooper ND: (http://www.philippe-starck.com/)

Starck also boasts a large number of public "art" in which he takes everyday items such as fences and street lamps and reinvents their look and function:

Though there are countless examples of Starck's works some of the finest are his interior object designs. Many of which are distinctly ergonomic and as is seen in the following photo demonstrate Starck's zany personality and design concept.

Starck's designs as well as the designs of what has become a consortium of contemporary designers, now under the title "Statck Products" and the home design lines "Good Goods" are varied and demonstrative of change. Starck has his hands in just about everything and supports several other designers with similar predilection to changing the world through its everyday products.

If his designs and gallery of zany personal photos are any indication of his working process and goals, Starck is a demonstrative example of someone who has made his art and love his career. There is a clear sense of the future, when looking at his contemporary architectural drawings that clearly demonstrates a sense of whimsy as well as object that are in stark contrast to their surroundings.

In a demonstrative quote associated with Starck's works and what they have and are doing for the modern world: