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Philippe Starck
Starck by Tom Whipps
If you talk to any genuinely creative individual about their talent/skill
they will almost to a person describe the creative processes as equal parts
agony and ecstasy. Inspiration can prove elusive when tied to a pressing
deadline, and flow unwanted and torrentially when it is least expected and
hardest to capitalise on i.e when you are on the loo…
Clever and prolific man that he is, Philippe Starck, you would think either
has an abundant stock of writing and drawing materials permanently to hand
in his lavvy or has mastered the tricky technique of being creative to
order. In actual fact, as recorded in a conversation between Monsieur Starck
and Pierre Doze for the book 'Starck by Starck', (Taschen) the enfant
incorrigible of world design regards his creations as a biological
inevitability:
"Objects are no longer a concern; they are more like an unavoidable
secretion of a slightly shameful kind, like sweat or ear-wax. I never stop
producing. You might say I produce out of sheer idleness."
On paper at least, Philippe Starck certainly seems rarely to have been
strapped for an idea. Born in Paris in 1949, the son of aeroplane designer
André Starck, Mummy's little cabbage would spend hours at his father’s knee
painting, cutting and sticking as is the norm for any reasonably well
balanced young child. He would also spend hours disassembling, dismantling
and then - even more impressive- rebuilding quite complex pieces of
machinery, which isn’t quite as common. Imagine what his mother and father’s
fridge door must have looked like!
Starck studied at Nissim de Camondo school in Paris, after which in 1968 he
set up his first business producing inflatable objects. A year later he
would become artistic director at the internationally renowned Pierre
Cardin.
Watch "Hard Starck" for Fossil, 2004
There followed a move to the United States after which in 1978 he returned
to Paris and designed his first nightclub "La main bleu". His founding of
the business Starck Product in 1979 was to provide the launch pad for his
stellar international career and his reputation as the ‘superdesigner’ of
the late twentieth century
Starck’s incontinent creativity had already seen him produce many protoypes
in many different fields. Within just a few years, Starck would have
remodelled the furniture for President Mitterand’s private apartments in the
Elysée Palace in Paris, transformed the interior of the Café Costes, and
created classics of interior design at restaurants in Tokyo and Hotels in
New York. He would also bring his unique touch to the Groningen Museum. in
Holland, and the Eurostar terminal in Paris, while his work on the Galerie
Jean-Paul Gaultier, (Cannes, Paris, France, and London seemed to confirm him as the designer’s designer of choice.
Perhaps not surprisingly for someone who by his own admission seems to
involuntarily secrete ideas, Starck and his company were riding the wave of
contemporary approval into several ambitious new areas.
Starck’s architectural work has included everything from commercial
buildings in France, Japan and the USA to an air traffic control tower at
Bordeaux airport (blink and you’ll miss it), and individually designed
houses which were sold through a mail order catalogue.
Equally at home with a whoopee cushion and a crayon as he is a draughtsman’s
compass, the restlessly creative Starck has also produced furniture for such
internationally famous names as Alessi and Cassina, crockery, vases,
lighting, spectacles, stationary, wrist watches, the Olympic flame,
children’s toys, alarm clocks, and boats (including the yacht Wedge II).
It’s the kind of work rate that might even have made the likes of the late
Picasso, Sir Terence Conran, Bollywood, and the Artist Previously Known as
Squiggle wonder if perhaps they had been taking their career seriously
enough.
