Article by Martin Gibson – Twitter – 03.06.2010
I came to work today with quite a shock as a colleague pointed out that there is a new industrial design reality TV show called ‘Design For Life’ made by the BBC. The show puts 12 British design hopefuls through numerous challenges for the chance to work with one of the worlds most recognisable product designers, Philippe Starck. The show is rather entertaining as one sees the eccentric Starck detail his design philosophy and his opinions of products we use everyday. Furthermore Starck isn’t afraid to deploy Simon Cowell-like criticalness on the at times innocent cast of designers.
It is fantastic to see industrial design making a real presence on our television set. First it was the memorable documentary ‘Objectified’ and now a reality TV show, what will be next? These features could only further professionalise and legitimise a profession which is often under-valued by some industry sectors.
7 Comments
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Martin Gibson and Embody 3D, Martin Gibson. Martin Gibson said: Design For Life – Philippe Starck Reality TV Show http://goo.gl/fb/qQ8sY #news […]
Can any1 from Au download this show and publish it on Rapidshare for us designers outside of Australia. Tnx
Hey Mancev,
Are you having difficulty viewing the episode outside of Australia? It is of course difficult to test whether the ABC Iview works outside of Australia or not, but it certainly works outside of Australia. I will have a look for you and if I find anything I will send you an email so you can watch it because it is a fantastic series with a critical insight into a great industrial designer.
Cheers,
What struck me about “Design for Life” was how poor quality all the students were. Little depth or breadth of knowledge, hardly any hard skills (sketching, rendering, CAD), very full of themselves. It was if none of them had ever done any design work in the real world. Watch “Genius of Design” instead.
I watched this show when it was airing in Britain, overall it is terrible, overhyped reality TV trash. Philippe Starck might be considered by many to be a brilliant designer but in this he comes across as a fool. I feel sorry for the young designers who ended up on it too as they are represented in a bad light because of the overhype of the show.
That said it is great to see ID getting some more press and becoming better known to the general public.
@mancev full episodes were on Vimeo for a while (if you are signed up to Vimeo you could download them), check out the shows facebook page for more detail.
Hey Raph!
Thanks for stopping by and putting up the information about Vimeo! I am a huge fan of Vimeo.
I have been loving the stuff coming out of Design Droplets recently. I will have to do another write up about DD soon.
Cheers,
@Martin No problem. Yes Vimeo is fantastic. Great to hear you are enjoying Design Droplets content. Embody3d is looking pretty great as well.