Philippe Starck
Philippe Starck is a world-renowned Architecture and product designer. Born in 1949, Starck had a legendary career spanning over 5 decades. He rose to fame in the 1970’s for designing a pair of French nightclubs in Paris.
Starck has a visionary view on the designing world, with endless design innovation, he marks a true inspiration to all future designers. In whatever form an object must take, it must improve the lives of as many people as possible.
“An object must be useful before it is beautiful”.
Two of my favourite and also most popular designs were the: Louis XVI Ghost chair and the Juicy Salif Lemon Squeezer.
The Louis XVI Ghost chair was designed in 2002 and was inspired by the Louis XVI chair also known as Goût grec, an early expression of neoclassical styles in France. This style of chair was a modest upholstered armchair popular during the reign of the late King of France, Louis XVI.
The Ghost chair is cleverly engineering by moulding the chair into one single unit, no joining methods are required. It is made from polycarbonate plastic and has since been further developed with new pastel colours.
My other favourite product designed by Philippe was the Lemon Squeezer. This abstract lemon squeezer takes the impression of space rocket, a new form of art for kitchen appliances.
This interesting product was initially designed and created on a used napkin Philippe had used for lunch. He had ordered calamari and saw there were lemons missing from the dish and then the idea struck.
Creativity arises at the most random of times, but we should exploit these moments and run away with our imaginations.
The Juicy Salif Citrus squeezer was designed back in 1990 but is still a very popular product amongst the public, you can even buy one at John Lewis. Although it is merely a kitchen appliance it is now considered a form of art and is recognised among the greats of modern design in the museum of Modern Art in New York.