‘Design for Life’ is a BBC2 show that seems to be a cross between Dragons Den, Art Attack and The Apprentice.
Playing ‘Siralan’ is the world-famous French product designer, Philipe Starck. As pointed out by Dick Powell (of SeymourPowell fame) he is most remembered for his lemon squeezer that squirts lemon in your eyes, and the kettle which burns when you pick it up…
Philippe Starck handpicked 12 would-be apprentices from the UK to compete for a 6-month work placement at his studio in Paris. Being a fairly recent design graduate myself I know how much effort students (at least at the Brunel University design department) put in, and the resulting high quality of work generated.
However, judging by the first three episodes of ‘Design for Life’ that we have seen so far, it appears that the candidates are not applying themselves fully to the tasks.
I don’t know if this is limited to Brunel Design, but if you make a group of creative people live and work together (such as happens at university) you end up with each one trying to out-do the others, and as a result both the quality and volume of work is increased.
Starck’s students seem to lack this natural creative competitiveness – they are putting in the hours, thinking long and hard, but there doesn’t seem to be an element of competition. None of the candidates have jumped, put their neck on the line, or given Starck any reason to believe that British design is anything but dead!
By episode three I’m starting to like Starck, and I can see exactly why he is frustrated with the student’s lack of vision, effort and creativity. Here’s hoping that they pull the finger out over the coming weeks and show Starck that British design is alive and well!
You can see ‘Design for Life’ on BBC2, Mondays at 9pm. Catch up on previous episodes here.