Born: 1968
Best-known works: A mouse for Microsoft, spaceport for Virgin Galactic, Gun lamps, K-tribe lamps,
Romeo Moon lamps, Miss Sissy lamps, Miss K lamps, Rosy Angelis lamps, Arcihmoon lamps from
FlosTraining: Designer
BackgroundThe world’s greatest museums can’t be wrong. Paris, New York, Munich, London, Chicago, Kyoto, Barcelona – they all exhibit the work of a master. In the same way, a long list of prize wins tells the story of his work - Designer Of The Year, Grand Prix for Industrial Design, an Oscar for Design, Officier des Arts et des Lettres, and many more.
Some of Philippe Starck’s best-known work includes the Gun lamps, K-tribe lamps, Romeo Moon lamps, Miss Sissy lamps, Miss K lamps, Rosy Angelis lamps and Arcihmoon lamps from Flos.
When we experience a place or an object designed by Philippe Starck, we enter a world of wall-to-wall fantasy and surprise. For more than three decades this unique and multitalented creator, designer and architect has been a part of our daily lives. His untraditional objects – whose purpose is to be good rather than beautiful – take his audience out of themselves and toward something better.
Philippe Starck’s father, an inventor and aeronautical engineer, inspired in him a desire to create and the capacity to dream. Many years and prototypes later he was invited to work for French president François Mitterrand. That was also when he began to create furniture for leading Italian and international design companies.
Philippe Starck designs his hotel and restaurants in the same way that a director makes a film. He creates scenarios that lift guests out of the everyday and into an imaginative and creative mental world. These hotels and restaurants have become timeless icons and added a new dimension to global city living.
Philippe Starck believed in the power of green – long before organic became fashionable – out of respect for the Earth. Recently he developed the revolutionary concept ‘democratic ecology’ by creating windmills for home use (and at an affordable price), which will soon be followed by solar-powered ships and hydrogen cell cars.
Philippe Starck is a tireless and rebellious citizen, and he considers it his duty to share his ethical and radical vision of a fairer world. He is tuned in to our dreams, desires and needs – sometimes before we’re aware of them ourselves. He touches us with refined and intelligent work, but most of all he touches us because he puts his heart into the effort to create objects that are good before they are beautiful.
"I like to open the door to people’s brains." - Philippe Starck