Philippe Starck

Philippe Starck has said that he can design a chair in two minutes and a hotel in a day and a half. He prefers to work alone, sometimes “naked in the bedroom,” the Frenchman has invented thousands of products, interiors, and buildings for clients ranging from Microsoft to Baccarat.

In the begining he stopped studying architecture to work for fashion designer Pierre Cardin. In the Beginning of the 80s he achieved wide publis approval by designing furniture for president Mitterrand's private suite. in the Elysee Palace. He designed furniture for furniture companies such as DRIADE and a set of shelves for the company Disform. His designs show strong bio morphism - A surrealist art movement of the twentieth century that focuses on the power of natural life and uses organic shapes, with shapeless and vaguely spherical hints of the forms of biology, which influenced a lot of designers in the late 80s.

Philippe claims that he can design chairs in less then 15 minutes, which means that obviously he is supported by a strong back up team. He designed toothbrushes, pasta and a lemon squeezer which is quite famous and was in the homes of the early 90s chic.

The Lemon squeezer was quite an interesting design, also unique and how he came up with the idea is way more interesting. He was having lunch and ordered calamari and noticed that he didn't have a lemon so he asked the waiter for one. While squeezing the lemon Starcks came up with this grand idea-design and started drawing it on a napkin which he had infront of him.

Today the napkin is held in a museum and the squeezer made a great hit. He designer this for Alessi and this was not only his famous design but another which I do like is the Ghost chair. I couldn't help but realise while walking in Victoria Gozo to go have some coffee that a Cafeteria - Kozmo has Starck's look alike chairs inside and out and so I went to try them out I was so tempted that I had to see if they were comfortable. Here are the pictures below.

First Design of the Ghost chair:

The chairs I found at the cafe:

His first design was clear plastic but had no colour, these days they do them in any colour possible and they still do sell them or similar designs as you can see.


Fiell, C & P F, 1999. design of the 20th century. 2nd ed. china: ISBN.
Thames & Hudson, T&H, 2004. design since 1900. 2nd ed. singapore: C.C Graphics.