PHILIPPE STARCK

 

Philippe Patrick Starck (born January 18, 1949, Paris) is a French Product designer and probably the best known designer in the New Design style. His designs range from spectacular interior designs to mass produced consumer goods such as toothbrushes, chairs, and even houses.

He was educated in Paris at École Nissim de Camondo and in 1968, he founded his first design firm, which specialized in inflatable objects. In 1969, he became art director of his firm along with Pierre Cardin. 

Starck’s career started to climb in earnest in 1982 when he designed the interior for the private apartments of the French President François Mitterrand.

Starck has worked independently as an interior designer and as a product designer since 1975. Most notably, in 2002, he created a number of relatively inexpensive product designs for the large American retailer Target Stores.

His most recent notable designs include an optical mouse for Microsoft, yachts, and even new packaging for a beer company. He was commissioned to design the Virgin Galactic “spaceport” in New Mexico (Foster and Partners are its architects)^.

He made the exihibt Democratic Ecology with Pramac

Unlike most other New Design artists, Starck’s work does not concentrate on the creation of provocative and expensive single pieces. Instead, his product designs are of usable household items which Starck himself helps to market for mass production. His products and furnishings are often stylized, streamlined and organic in their look and are also constructed using unusual combinations of materials (such as glass and stone, plastic and aluminum, plush fabric and chrome, etc.).

 

PRODUCTS

Two of Starck’s designs include stylized toothbrushes (1989) and a sleek juicer dubbed the Juicy Salif created for Alessi in 1990. The Juicy Salif has become an affordable and popular cult item. In 2008 he created wireless speakers for the iPod and iPhone : Parrot Zikmu.

 

FURNISHINGS

Regarding Starck’s furniture designs, he is famous for his designs for the Italian manufacturer Kartell, many of which are made from polycarbonate plastic. World famous products he has designed include the transparent Louis Ghost chair, Ero|S| chair, Bubble Club sofa, and La Bohème stool. He has also been involved in the relaunch of the World War II-era Navy Chair in the U.S., designing a classic furniture collection around it.

The Bubble Club chair is featured prominently in the television series Boston Legal. A pair sit on the balcony outside Denny Crane’s office, where he and Alan Shore end each episode with a cigar and a glass of Scotch while discussing the events of the episode.

 

RESTAURANT INTERIORS

Among his interior designs for restaurants, Starck design the Felix restaurant-bar at the The Peninsula Hong Kong, a classic hotel facing the Hong Kong harbour on the Kowloon side. This design, located on the 28th floor, is known for several design features including the men’s washroom, which features urinals facing glass, and a spectacular view of the Kowloon cityscape.

An earlier design by Starck, now world famous, was for the Café Costes in Paris (1984).

 

HOTEL INTERIORS

In 1988, Starck was commissioned by famed nightclub impresario Ian Schrager, former co-owner of Studio 54, to refit the Royalton Hotel on New York’s East 44th Street. It was a design moment that has since changed the hotel industry; boutique hotels, where design is an important factor, became the industry buzz. However the Schrager hotels are also known for their celebrity and publicity orientations that attract attention to the hotels.

The Starck-Schrager design hotel partnerships continued in New York at the Paramount hotel, and then spread to Miami with the opening of the Delano Hotel  in South Beach in 1995, to Los Angeles with the Mondrian Hotel in December 1996 , to London with both the St. Martins Lane hotel in 1999 and the Sanderson hotel in 2000, to San Francisco and the Clift hotel, and finally back to New York with the Hudson hotel, with what is described as “Cheap Chic”.

The look and feel of Starck-Schrager hotels has been highly influential, including the approaches at Starwood‘s W hotels.

Starck also designed Jia, the first Philippe Starck-designed boutique hotel in Asia.

From 2007 until 2022, Starck is under an exclusive contract with nightclub mogul Sam Nazarian to design Nazarian’s new hotel brand, SLS Hotels. The first property, SLS Los Angeles at Beverly Hills (a massive renovation of the former Le Méridien At Beverly Hills), is currently scheduled to open on October 28, 2008, and will be entirely designed by Starck. The hotel lobby will feature unique Starck-designed display cases featuring rotating design items curated by gallerist Murray Moss.

From December 2007, Philippe Starck and his daughter Ara were involved in the redecoration of public areas at Le Meurice, Paris.

 

PROPERTY DEVELOPMENTS

Through residential design company Yoo Ltd, Starck has been involved in the development of several properties featuring Starck interiors.

 

 WIND ENERGY

His work with the Pramac energy group, has produced a design for windmills that also function as wind instruments.

“

Ecology is not just an urgency of the economy and protection of our world but also creativity and elegance

”

He has created a personal power-generating windmill (L’éolienne individuelle Pramac) in polycarbonate resting on one platform in wood, that can be purchased for about 400 Euros (about $633). It is a design, but also functional, generating 20 to 60 percent of a home’s energy needs.

Why you should listen to him: www.starck.com

Philippe Starck is a legend of modern design. He’s known for his luxurious hotels and boites around the world — notably the Peninsula Hotel restaurant in Hong Kong, the Teatron in Mexico, the Hotel Delano in Miami, the Mondrian in Los Angeles, the Asia de Cuba restaurant in New York — designing the total environment from layout to furniture to linens.

But he has made perhaps his most permanent mark on design through his bold reworkings of everyday objects. In reimagining and rethinking the quotidian, he has produced some of the iconic shapes of the 20th century, including his leggy chrome juice squeezer , the reimagined Emeco aluminum chairs, and the witty Louis Ghost polycarbonate fauteuil.

When Starck turns his bold vision toward a chair, a shoe, a toothbrush, it’s clear he thinks deeper than the glossy surface.