Modern Furniture

Crossing many design borders and boundaries, Philippe Starck best describes himself as "a Japanese architect, an American art director, a German industrial designer, a French artistic director, and an Italian furniture designer". It is through all of these inspirations that he builds each of his designs for functional, yet aesthetically effective, household products.


About Starck...

Born in 1949, Starck is a well-known French designer of the New Design style that incorporates the main tenets of modernism, including “form follows function,” simplification of design or elimination of “unnecessary detail,” and the adoption of a machine aesthetic. Starck has created numerous interior pieces, as well as mass produced contemporary consumer goods, and many consider him one of the most original and creative designers of our time. His ideas can be seen in a broad spectrum of products ranging from contemporary toothbrushes to futuristic juicers, and of course remarkable chairs – many of which can be found here by Alessi and Emeco.

Unlike many modern designers, Starck’s work does not concentrate on the creation of provocative and expensive single pieces. Instead, they are useful, functional, stylized, streamlined and aesthetically organic household items. Starck also loves to employ the intertwining of unusual material combinations in the construction of his pieces, such as glass and stone or plush fabrics and chrome.

Education and Achievements

Starck studied at the Ecole Nissim de Camondo in Paris, where he then founded his first firm in 1968, specializing in inflatable goods. In 1969, he became the art director of his firm along with Pierre Cardin. Since 1975, Starck has continued to work independently as an interior and product designer. Most notably he has created a number of product designs for the large American retailer Target Stores that bring top design to pop price, as well as toothbrushes and a sleek lemon press entitled the “Juicy Salif” for Alessi, which has become a collectible design icon and is on permanent exhibit at the MOMA in New York, and numerous re-designs of the famous 1006 Navy Chair for Emeco – including the Heritage, Hudson, Icon, and Kong, as well as the classic Emeco Stools, Occasional Tables and Café Tables. These business ventures really pushed Starck’s career forward after he completed the design for the interior of the private apartments of the then French President François Mitterrand in 1982.

Since then, there has been no stopping Starck, who has most recently been commissioned to design the Virgin Galactic "spaceport" in New Mexico. Notably, Starck has obtained many important acknowledgements, including the Grand Prix National de la Création industrielle and the Honor Award of the American Institute of Architects.