Philippe Starck: Design is Dead  

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yes I have a Starck...the quintessential juicer(or not)
who on this forum doesn't have a design piece in their home without it actually functioning?
I do, in fact I've never sat on a chair where I've squealed 'shit that's comfortable!'(the wink chair comes close) albeit I have many.
I, like most, love beautiful things. Whether they function as good as they look is superfluous to most of my needs
Case in Point.... My beautiful wife 🙂

That
is sad.

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what? the wife bit?.....just takin' the piss
or what? the design bit. Obviously I prefer form over function but I'd like both sometime in my life.

I assumed that the wife bit was a joke
and besides, that's none of my business.
I meant the design bit.

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I was primarliy talking about chairs.
I buy what my eye likes and there's not a lot of physical comfort in that choice. I spend a great deal of my time parked on an aeron chair and have no real complaints.
But them I'm 198cm (6 foot 5 inches) and I'm always going to have trouble with uncomfortable chairs.
And my liking for fibreglass and plastic chairs heightens that uncomfortability

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...I roll out of a tongue chair and my ball chair...well lets just say 'I' look like a 'Ball' disembarking from that thing

ha!
Wife jokes are really funny but they'll put you in the dog house quick:)
I'm really not a huge Starck fan but I have a $850 Movado and a $150 Fossil watch (Starck design) and my Fossil gets far more compliments.

I like some Starck pieces, I...
I like some Starck pieces, I dislike others (his latest light for Flos, with the iPhone charger, for example is totally heinous). I definitely think there's a place in design for pieces that don't have function as their primary consideration.
But the thing that slays me is how he says on the one hand "Design is crap, I'm so ashamed", and on the other, "But I'm going to continue doing it for another two years or so..." Why not give up today? Besides, I seem to remember him saying something similar about five years ago... "Design is horrible, the world doesn't need any more products and I'm going to give up soon....but in the meantime I'll be launching 15 new chairs at Milan this year..."