Top Model meets Project Runway. Phillipe Starck, the world renowned designer in the UK who is going to raise the bar in British design. The Prize? Six months industry experience with one of the "top" designers in the last century.
The larger than life designer is surrounded by a group of designers who seem to be solving issues which everyone, including non-designers, is aware of. Things such as why single use batteries are bad for the environment and are not ecological, why homes built on the sea would mean more land space for crop growth and why using a bicycle for short journeys helps the environment. Why did Starck not get rid of the majority of the people sitting around his table? The idea of this programme and the chance to win a placement with Starck, is to find a designer who thinks outside of the box and can develop ideas that are not so glaringly obvious?
The programme continues this preconceived idea of designers to be quite full of there own importance and also that things need to be sleek, sexy and cool to be a good piece of design. Evidence of this is when Starck says "to understand you should not think only feel" in his heavy over-emphasising French accent. The image of people like Zombies not thinking only feeling crossed my mind as I watched this. There does, however appear to be a couple of contestants who genuinely want to learn and who are truly passionate about design.
I agree with Starck when he said that "too many pointless products are being made." an example of this is evident in a piece of his own works, the spaceship looking lemon juicer (Salif Juicer for Alessi). This impractical piece of design (reputedly it squirts juice everywhere) is now a part of the collection at the Museum of Modern Art.
The military truck = simplicity- This according to Starck is the "only vehicle with the elegance of intelligence, driven by function not marketing" This is a rather interesting concept as it undermines designers ability almost giving the idea that designers do not design they are simply dictated to by what will or will not sell.
Overall the programme is maybe not entirely informative or full of decent "design thinking", but, I can't help but feel I will become addicted to watching it to follow the progress of the group but more so to try and understand why Starck is such a major influence in the design world
.http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=1825 Museum of Modern Art
http://www.starck.com/ Phillipe Starck
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