[task5.:Design4Lif3:.]

Through this six part series (Design for Life) we follow the journey of handpicked designers to compete against one another to win the opportunity to be able to design under the wing of Philipe Starck. We, the audience, are able to see how designers use their own style in design and their own design process to try and live up to Starck’s expectations. As a designer following this series episode by episode, I can’t help but wonder if this is what life will be like after university. However as Philipe Starck continues to critisise, comment on peoples work and eliminating the group so that only one survives I’ve come to see that his way of thinking, what he demands and expects from his competitors is similar to what can be demanded in the industry.

I like how Starck looks beyond just the product and really dissects a product by really thinking about the story which he does during episode one where the bike can be analysed to have been manufactured via slave labour. When it gets to the nitty gritty of product design however, his comments are awesome. His designers had to keep in mind to design something that would intrigue someone while being ambitious. I should take this on board, try something new, be different, not just simply redesign an existing product. I guess this is for later in my design life. Not necessarily designing for a big corporation. Concept generation in episode 3 made me go, oooooo3r. When I saw how angry he was at the level of work the designers produced. I thought they did enough work. But to him, the amount of work they needed atleast was to have a design with all technical aspects nutted out. To him this must be done before you pitch to a client, and I should really take that to heart because industry life is coming soon, I better get to it. Starks “lazy” term: not pushing ideas to the ultimate limit is also what I’m taking on board to, being dedicated and motivated enough to push ideas to its limit, really got me thinking of how I approach my work. Do I become lazy, do I push ideas to it’s true potential….

This final quote is what I’m probably going to keep in mind for the next few years.
“Must harness a real breath of skills, you need ideas, internal source, memory, personality, recollections, the creative influences that you’ve soaked up, second source, looking outside, observation, talking to people, seeing whats around there. Know the technical aspects, the designer has to work out skill and craft. Worthless if you can’t communicate. They fail without showing passion and convicntion, articulate argument. That pitch is everything.”