So says Philippe Starck (über-designer for those of you living under a rock):
Renowned French designer Philippe Starck says he is fed up with his job and plans to retire in two years, in an interview published in a German weekly on Thursday. “I was a producer of materiality and I am ashamed of this fact,” Starck told Die Zeit weekly news blockquote paper.
“Everything I designed was unnecessary.
“I will definitely give up in two years’ time. I want to do something else, but I don’t know what yet. I want to find a new way of expressing myself… design is a dreadful form of expression.”
Starck, who is known for his interior design of hotels and Eurostar trains and mass consumption objects ranging from chairs to tooth brushes and lemon juice squeezers, went on to say that he believed that design on the whole was dead.
“In future there will be no more designers. The designers of the future will be the personal coach, the gym trainer, the diet consultant,” he said.
Starck said the only objects that he still felt attached to were “a pillow perhaps and a good mattress.” But the thing one needs most, he added, was the “ability to love”.
While I don’t agree that design is dead, I do share his sentiment that it’s not a super great form of expression for me. I’m looking to see what other paths my talent and desire can take me. Focusing more on video and photo seem the most promising and interesting.

One Comment
Permalink
This is amazing coming from a man (Starck) who has enjoyed such international acclaim and financial success. His chairs are revered, absolutely revered. And even he says, “It’s just stuff. It never mattered.”
Kind of puts our work in perspective… and takes the piss out of me in a hurry.
When are you and Jess going to open a fine art gallery?!