Philippe Starck is one of the world's most prolific and famous designers. Well known for his luxurious hotels and restaurants, he is equally celebrated for his inspirational reworkings of everyday household items.

Whether it be his iconic lemon squeezer, dubbed the 'Juicy Salif', or his colourful stylized toothbrushes, Starck's works are some of the earliest examples of 'democratic design'. This idea, that exceptional products should not be exclusive and elite, but be accessible and affordable, would eventually revolutionise modern design.

Starck has worked privately for French president Francois Mitterand, decorating a suite in the Palais d'Élysée in Paris in 1982. He has designed products for a number of internationally renowned organisations including Microsoft, Lacie, Eurostar, Alessi and Fossil.

These volumes will introduce in a practical manner the personalities and the works of the world's major designers by way of an historical-critical introduction to the work and life of each individual designer. An accurate selection of the designer's most famous objects arranged in chronological order and a critique of his or her work summarising the most significant reviews published in magazines and newspapers will complete the subject.

Christina Morozzi is the editor of Design magazine and works as a curator of exhibitions in Italy and abroad. She is also a visiting professor at Domus Academy of Milan and University of Art and Design, Lausanne, Switzerland.

"We have to replace beauty, which is a cultural concept, with goodness, which is a humanist concept." – Philippe Starck

Philippe Starck wants to bring love and happiness into your life by designing objects, environments, and appliances that will brighten your days. He spent his childhood under his father's drawing boards, sawing, cutting, gluing, and sanding, dismantling bikes, motorcycles and other objects. Several years and several prototypes later, he has changed life at the French presidential palace, the Italians have asked him to renew the notion of furniture, and he has turned the Royalton and Paramount in New York into the first classics of the new hotel world.

Starck's overwhelming international success and cult-star status are proof that people everywhere are receptive to his kindhearted philosophy and distinctive aesthetic sensibility. The democratic design projects that he has undertaken with Target (USA) and j/ii (Japan), as well as the TASCHEN bookshops in Paris and Los Angeles and the Bon restaurant chain, are among the projects included in this volume that traces the entire career of today's foremost design superhero.

The designer:
Philippe Starck is an internationally acclaimed French creator, designer and architect. This untiring and rebellious citizen of the world, who considers it his duty to share his ethical and subversive vision of a fairer planet, creates unconventional objects whose purpose is to be “good” before being beautiful. Most of his designs have become cult objects, and his hotels are timeless icons that have added a new dimension to the global cityscape. An enthusiastic advocate of sustainability, this visionary recently developed the revolutionary concept of “democratic ecology” by creating affordable wind turbines for the home, soon to be followed by innovative wooden prefabricated ecological houses and solar boats. He himself lives, with his wife Jasmine, mostly on airplanes, and in Paris, Burano, and on his oyster farm in the southwest of France.

Philippe Starck wants to bring love and happiness into your life by designing objects, environments, and appliances that will brighten your days. His overwhelming international success and cult-star status are proof that people everywhere are receptive to his kindhearted philosophy and distinctive aesthetic sensibility. This overview of his stellar career includes examples of his best work around the globe.