Starck brewing 'fairly, if not very, revolutionary' Apple THING Gallic product design hotshot Philippe Starck says he's working on a "fairly, if not very, revolutionary" project with Apple that will be out in time for Christmas. Starck dropped the bombshell in an interview with French radio station France Info, but declined to elaborate on what he meant due to Apple's "secrecy cult", AFP …
Possibly, I haven't tried enough of them.
However, the Zab backpacks he designed with Samonsite were absolutely superb, functionally. Understated and slender, but could expand to about 25 litres. Little unfussy details. The straps were retractable, like seatbelts. I don't go out of my way for designer man-bags, but spotted it in TK Max.
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Hmm... don't know what to make of this story. Can't see why he would voluntarily dent his reputation by claiming something that is demonstrably false.
If true, it might be a collaboration with Apple for the sake of charity- like the Product RED range. Or something daft, like the U2 iPod.
Maybe Cook thinks we've all got a bit too used to Sir Jonny's efforts - and Jonny himself might be getting bored - so maybe a step away from the minimal is more plausible that at first it seems.
Mai non.
It seems very courteous of the gallic gentleman to continue to visit and comfort the widow.
Any suggestion that he is trying to get his feet under the table with a woman who is presumably a major shareholder in the company would be in poor taste. And that in typically French style he might be enjoying an intimacy with a woman who is not his wife must be near slanderous.
http://www.macrumors.com/2012/04/13/philippe-starcks-project-with-apple-is-steve-jobs-yacht/
Some millionaires go by "If it flies, floats or fornicates, rent it. It's cheaper in the long run". Billionaires, it seems, don't have to worry!
Oh, and just to show that Starck can be more sober:
http://www.starck.com/fr/design/categories/design_industriel/bagages.html#zab
Those of you who haven't tried a Phillipe Starck Juicy Salif juicer would be well advised to avoid it.
It is not actually meant to be used, it is meant to sit on your mantelpiece to show guests what a trendy, design-concious hipster you are.
The juicer does not work. Well, no thats not quite right, it does work, but in a useless way.
Firstly - it's too tall. You have to press hard and twist to get juice out of an orange, and doing that on an object with only three legs, and is tall and narrow, with a very high centre of gravity? What could possibly go wrong? There is a good reason all other manual juicers tend to be low with wide bases!
Secondly - surface tension. The theory is sound, juice runs down the spike and drips elegantly into your Alvar Aalto-designed tumblers. In practice - surface tension makes the liquid stick to the spike, and as the liquid runs down the spike it acquires a sideways vector as well, and streams off the end int eh direction of the slope of the spike - so if you aren't using a high-ball glass that contains the end of the spike, the juice ends up all over your bench, making it wet, slippery and messy, and... see above.
So what can we expect from a merging of Apple and Starck? Maybe a circular glass & titanium keyboard? A perfectly cubical mouse with nice precise sharp edges? Whatever it is, it will certainly allow Apple to add another 700% or so markup to the same old tat.
Well, given Starck's experience in rendering a useful everyday object pretty but quite unusable, I'd say you should all expect some sort of shiny mobile communications device which when picked up with a bare hand loses all signal reception because you've shorted the antenna to ground.
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