Superstar Designers.

Often when we picture a "designer" we visualise the arty type, with a fancy studio full of strange objects and a head just as strange. We see the daft concepts, funkily formed, but hopelessly useless as a product. We may laugh with glee at these designers, but are we just laughing with ignorance? That is the question I have proposed to myself.

The question was challenged when we explored the designer Marc Newson - The Urban Spaceman. I would recommend you watch this programme created by the BBC a few years ago...

Before watching this film I was certain that Marc Newson was another Philippe Starck say, a seemingly pretentious designer with designs of little merit. However, as the documentary, and my additional research played out I began to understand the man better. I am still unimpressed by much of his work such as the chair shown above - his famous Lockheed Lounge, 1986. This is really just my personal opinion of the aesthetics. But what does impress me is the mans passion, his passion for his designs. A passion which is felt for every single detail of every single design. Is this passion the factor that makes him a "superstar designer"? 

Jonathan Ive (Apple Inc) said: "I think Marc is fairly peerless now. Marc's forms are often imitated, but what other designers seldom imitate is his preoccupation with materials and processes. You have to start with an understanding of the material. Often your innovation is just coming up with a new way to use material."

What allowed this man become famous in the world of art and design to such an extent that one of his pieces holds the record for the highest price paid for a single piece of furniture. I think his success is a combination of his passion, hard work and a wee bit luck.
But what happens if you do not come across this luck? That should not matter… you will just have to put more of the hard work in!! Simple as that. You don't have to be a superstar designer to be a designer. That may sound silly, but it makes sense to think about it. Often people are detered by the world of "design" due to this preconception of the designer type, but I know that this is not what the worls of "design" is like. 


However… that is the next question I suppose: What do you have to design to qualify as a designer? That then begs the question: What is designed? I would say everything almost, which in turn begs the question: Is everybody a designer?
I will be exploring all of this in much greater detail over the next few weeks...