In Conversation with Philippe Starck, the Emperor of Design
Editor Dami Yoo | Photographer Miyeon Jeon
Today, Philippe Starck, one of the most influential designers in the world, spends monk-like days immersed in design at his home in a remote part of Cascais, Portugal. For Starck, whose dense career spans more than 40 years, “work” is an opportunity to shape and develop humanity’s collective intelligence and to generate new ideas. That is why his designs always carry deep questions about humanity, the evolution of technology, and the future.
This interview is featured in Magazine C Issue 3 ‘Louis Ghost’.
You’ve worked on more than 10,000 projects over 40-plus years, which is a truly astonishing career. It’s hard to imagine how you handle so much work. How do you manage your working hours and daily life?
My days are always the same. I wake up at 6:30 a.m. at my home in the mountains of Cascais, Portugal, and start the day. First I take a very hot shower, then finish with cold water. It’s my own morning routine for waking up my brain quickly. After a low-carb, high-protein breakfast, I sit at my desk and spread out a sheet of drawing paper. I pick up a pencil and work until my head is about to explode. It’s like printing onto paper what I’ve long imagined and dreamed of. At noon, I repeat the morning routine and spend a second day until 7 p.m. In the evening, I have a glass of wine or champagne, eat quinoa, read good literature, and go to bed early. This is how I live every day. Work, work, and more work. To stay highly focused, I also listen to a 24-hour playlist my friend Stephan Crasneanscki made for me. It’s a selection of music tailored to my biorhythm. This monk-like routine is what allows me to take on about 250 projects a year. A few years ago, a journalist calculated that I’ve designed more than 10,000 objects so far. But I never design simply for the sake of design. I believe there’s always a project before a product, ethics before a project, and a vision before ethics.
In Impression d’Ailleurs, a book of interviews that explores your many ways of thinking and perspectives, you said that “work creates opportunities to shape and develop humanity’s collective intelligence and to generate new ideas.” It made me curious about how you work.
I always work alone, like a lone cowboy. I think working with many people is wonderful, but I know it’s not my way. Surrounded by mountaintops, forests, sand dunes, or mud, and looking out at the sea, I work with an A4 tracing pad and a Japanese criterium pencil. Surrounded by nature, I draw the vision in my head down to the smallest detail. Once it has taken shape, I pass it on to my dream team in Paris for full development. We don’t meet every day, but we’ve worked together for so long that everything runs smoothly. Each member brings their own talent, and we think of one another as family. That’s how I built the “Starck Network.”
You’ve collaborated for many years with leading global brands such as Kartell, Cassina, Flos, Driade, and Alessi, growing alongside them while reflecting the times. This proves your skill at partnership as well as your design sense. What’s your secret to building and maintaining good relationships with partners?
I believe that to create a beautiful project, you have to fall in love with your partner. Love is a very important part of our lives, so I only work with friends. We meet for a project and become friends, sometimes even family. I like working this way. It lets us work with mutual respect and without losing our sense of humor. Above all, to design a good product, you need partners who share the same values, ethics, and vision.
Louis Ghost, designed for Kartell, is one of the most beloved iconic chairs in the world. Molded in a single piece of transparent polycarbonate 2.0, it perfectly combines new technology, new materials, and great design. With that in mind, I’m curious about the background and the development of ideas behind La Marie, released earlier, and the Louis Ghost series. How did these projects begin, and what was the process like?
La Marie is a chair I made in pursuit of absolute “dematerialization.” It truly has minimal style, minimal weight, minimal material, and minimal presence. Louis Ghost builds on the concept of dematerialization in La Marie but adds a touch of sensitivity. It’s the result of several visions.
What visions are reflected in Louis Ghost?
The first is dematerialization, which I just mentioned. I see the process of achieving dematerialization as the evolution and the future of humanity. What humans produce should move toward less materiality and greater intelligence. The second is the power of “collective memory.” I don’t think I designed Louis Ghost. Western culture and the people who make it up did. Since it’s based on the medallion chair, it isn’t something new but a form that already existed within us. My design only served as a catalyst to awaken people’s unconscious. The result came from the spark of Western collective memory and sensibility. The third and final vision is the potential of advanced plastic molding technology. It’s an extension of democratic design, which means raising quality while lowering prices so that as many people as possible can use the product. It’s a concept I’ve been pioneering for a long time, and only today has it finally been achieved.
Could you explain the concept of dematerialization in your design philosophy in more detail?
There’s still a lot of matter today, but in the past there was far more. For example, the first computers were as big as buildings. As technology advanced, they shrank to the size of a wardrobe, then a suitcase, and now they’re small and sophisticated enough to fit inside a wristwatch. Someday, computers will be implanted under our skin. In this way, the materiality of products is not just shrinking but disappearing before our eyes. And disappearing means becoming more intelligent and more powerful. That’s the theory of dematerialization. “Invisibility” is connected to the idea of minimizing matter.
Then what does the dematerialization in Louis Ghost mean in terms of design?
Sometimes you need a cheerful, talkative friend, and other times you need a friend who doesn’t say much, right? Design is the same. Some products are bold, flaunt their presence, and are “talkative.” Louis Ghost, as I envisioned it, is the other kind. My goal was to make a quiet object that doesn’t grab attention and leaves room for the space around it. Louis Ghost gives you the freedom to sit on it or not, to see it or not. It’s the first and only case of this in a chair. I’m also pleased that it adapts easily to many settings and moods, from antique, classic interiors to trendy fashion shoots. It feels like I’ve fulfilled my mission to serve the community.
Beyond chairs, furniture, and product design, you’ve worked on a wide range of hospitality projects around the world. From luxury hotels like Le Royal Monceau Raffles Paris to boutique hotels like Too Hotel, the fantastical atmospheres you’ve created are striking. What mindset do you bring to spatial projects?
When I work on a hotel project, I act like a stage designer or a film director. I imagine people’s movements, behavior, and emotions. What matters is creating a story that makes the air of the place resonate and letting that story flow like music. My method is to create a mental space that leaves room for imagination. My goal is also to guide people into a place where they can open their minds, nurture their creativity, and reflect their dreams. It’s not just about making pretty rooms. I hope people leave the spaces I’ve created with new ideas in their heads. What matters isn’t what we see, but what we feel from it and how we use it in our own spaces.
Projects such as the smartphone for Xiaomi, the electric bike for Moustache Bikes, the crew quarters module for Axiom Space’s space station, and A.I. for Kartell are signature works that reflect technological progress and changing lifestyles. They also show your ongoing interest in science and technology. What technological changes interest you most today?
I’ve always been very interested in science. I love and admire humanity’s greatest minds, especially the ancient scientists. The ancient Greek mathematician Eratosthenes, for example, measured the size of the Earth with only a small margin of error 2,000 years ago, using a camel’s pace and a single 30 cm stick. Humans are geniuses. In the universe, humanity is the most creative animal. We’re animals that keep inventing new things and finding solutions. Artificial intelligence in particular is one of the most remarkable inventions, and I think it will change the world, for better or for worse. How it changes the world is up to humanity.
A.I., created in collaboration with Autodesk in 2019, seems to be the chair that best represents your interest in and passion for technology today. With it, you became the first designer to design and produce a chair using artificial intelligence. How did this project come about?
It started seven years ago. At the time, I had grown tired of my own creativity. So I wanted to explore a completely new territory, free from human, cultural, and emotional influence. To find a friend who could help, I contacted Autodesk, then the most capable AI company in Palo Alto. I asked if I could try their most powerful artificial intelligence program, and they agreed.
What was it like collaborating with artificial intelligence?
First, I gave the AI program one simple question. I asked, “Can you help us rest our bodies using as little material and energy as possible?” For two and a half years, the AI kept making mistakes and floundering. Just as I was about to give up, I realized that I had to “think” backward when communicating with the AI. So I changed the approach. Instead of adding material, we removed parts to create the structure.
After that, the AI worked quickly and completed A.I. In the end, it found the best design for supporting the body with minimal material and energy. What’s striking is that the final design has organic, plant-like lines, even though the process was completely free from natural or human influence. I think this collaboration was a truly pioneering project.
So how do you see the potential of artificial intelligence?
Seven years ago, it took a long time to arrive at the chair I wanted, but today the technology has advanced remarkably. Still, I think AI is only the most amazing tool for design. As a tool for creativity, it falls short. AI doesn’t yet have a heart, a brain, or the “crazy passion” that only humans have. At least not so far.
Was there anyone who influenced your rigorous design philosophy and forward-looking perspective?
I’ve always admired great scientists like Eratosthenes, Ptolemy, and Einstein. But I can’t say I’m inspired by anyone in particular. I live almost like a monk and don’t go to exhibitions or cocktail parties. That said, when I first started designing, I saw something special in a few great, moral designers. Enzo Mari, for example, was one of the great designers whose excellent work carried a humanitarian and social vision.
Andrea Branzi, Achille Castiglioni, Antoni Gaudi, and Vico Magistretti are also designers I admire. And I can’t leave out Alessandro Mendini. He was a wonderful man with a truly warm heart, a designer who had character, talent, ideas, and sensibility. In the spring of 2024, I was invited to his tribute exhibition ‘Io sono un Drago’ at the Triennale di Milano, where I presented a work paying homage to Mendini’s creativity. It was a great honor for me.
At that exhibition, I saw your work imagining and depicting the inside of Mendini’s head. If you were to depict the inside of your own head instead, what would it look like?
That’s actually my main question too. I don’t know exactly what the world inside my head looks like or how it works. If I had to describe it, I’d say my brain isn’t affected by gravity. It has no particular system and no sense of up, down, left, or right. I picture it as a very hot ball in constant motion. It’s also like boiling magma. I let this magma-like subconscious work on its own. When the magma in my head is ready to say something, it breaks through the surface and erupts, creating a small volcano, or sometimes a huge one. Sometimes it’s a fairly good volcano, sometimes a bad one. So I have to take good care of this magma, because it needs to give birth to good ideas and good visions. Ultimately, I hope it emerges as meaningful projects that can contribute to our society. My wife often says I’m superhuman, that I’m not from this planet. (Laughs)
That’s a fascinating metaphor. So what was the most recent magma eruption in your head?
Usually one boils up each day. I work on an average of 250 projects at once each year, so I’m finishing almost one project a day. Because of that, I feel as if I’m nowhere and everywhere at the same time. This affects my unusual memory. For me, the past is just an abstract concept. There’s no software in my head for dealing with the past. The only program I have is for thinking about the future.
One day I might see this interview and the photos in Magazine C and say, “What is this? I did this interview?” And my wife, next to me, would answer, “Yes. You did.” I may not even remember taking photos at the Kartell Museo. I’m something of an expert in weightless living. Maybe I work with NASA not so much out of luck but because my life is like a state of zero gravity. I’m pretty good at creating spaces without gravity.
Want to dive deeper?
Issue.03 Louis Ghost
Designed by Philippe Starck and produced by Kartell in 2002, the Louis Ghost has won worldwide acclaim as the very definition of a beautiful, sturdy, light, and transparent chair. Its classic design, modeled on an eighteenth-century Baroque chair, and the innovation of a single-mold polycarbonate body created an iconic chair of the century—transparent yet unmistakably present. Rather than commanding attention with flamboyance, it quietly gives way to its surroundings with a serene beauty, complementing any space and serving anyone in whatever way they wish. The reputation of this finely made plastic chair endures to this day.
