Philippe Patrick Starck born January 18, 1949, is a well known French designer and probably the best known designer in the New Design style. His designs range from spectacular interior designs to mass produced consumer goods such as toothbrushes, chairs, and even houses. He was educated in Paris and founded his first design firm in 1968. In 1969 became art director of his firm along with Pierre Cardin. Starck has worked independently as an interior designer and as a product designer since 1975. Most notably he has created a number of relatively inexpensive product designs for the large American retailer Target Stores. Starck's career started to climb in earnest in 1982 when he designed the interior for the private apartments of the then French President - François Mitterrand. After this date more and more works appear on his CV. His most recent occupations include a mouse for Microsoft, yachts and even new packaging for a beer company. Unlike most other New Design artists, Starck's work does not concentrate on the creation of provocative and expensive single pieces. Instead his product designs are of usable household items who Starck himself helps to market for mass production. His products are often stylized, streamlined and organic in their look and are also constructed using unusual combinations of materials (such as glass and stone, plastic and aluminum, plush fabric and chrome, etc). Two of these designs include stylish toothbrushes 1989 and a sleek lemon press dubbed the Juicy Salif created for Alessi in 1990. The Juicy Salif, in fact, has since become an affordable and popular cult item. A notable and world famous interior design job performed by Starck was for the Café Costes in Paris 1984. He has also been involved in the relaunch of the World War II-era Emeco 1006 chair in the U.S. Starck lives in four different cities; Paris for public relations, New York where he does most of his technical work, Burano (Italy) where he works also and London.
