Design For Life

Design for Life is about Philippe Starck and his search for design talent in the UK. As unusual as it may seem, its not all that different from what we as students are experiencing in UNSW especially with out first studio lesson.

Philippe Starck is interesting to say the least and his querky European style is intriguing along with his flamboyant personality. From the start he said some things that are weird but awe inspiring.

“you don’t make good design if you speak about the design, you make good design if you speak about life, sex, flesh, sweat.”

This is true, design should be about personal experience, if you have no experience then you are not going to make something truly great.

 “only vehicle with the elegance of intelligence, because it isn’t driven by marketing, just driven by function”

I had never thought of a military truck being great, sure it helps soldiers move around, but I always thought of it as a tool or something that can be disposed of. This totally changed my perception of the things I now see. The military truck is by no means beautiful, but as designs go, it is magnificent. It was designed for a single purpose and has done so ever since.

 “symbol of ecological thinking by growing by yourself”.

Somethings could be said to be a trigger towards green living, who would thought something so simple as a pair of gardening gloves can do this? By growing your own vegetables you are saving on transport costs and helping the environment and even growing something for you family! GREAT!

By understanding the products we design will all simply go towards landfill is something we as designers should all think about. Design is not only just about designing a product that people will use then dipose of, it is much more than that, we need to encourage people to live differently, use things differently if we really want to make a difference and a change.