Product design is all around us – from the bed we wake up in and the toothbrush we use, right through to the TV we watch and the car we drive. But many people spend their days completely oblivious to the thousands of ways it affects them. Now the enfant terrible of product design, Philippe Starck, is determined to shake up the world of British design.
Claiming there has not been a design revolution here since Terence Conran burst onto the scene in the Sixties, Starck invited open applications for places on a school of design he is setting up in Paris. Hundreds of British would-be designers applied. Starck then whittled them down to the best 12, based on the quality of the drawings they submitted with their applications, and invited them to join him in the French capital.
Design For Life follows the fortunes of the 12 students – seven men and five women – who must battle it out to impress Starck. Ably assisted by top designer Eugeni and his agency's head of communications, Jasmine, Starck will send the weakest home as and when he feels it necessary. At the end of the series, one lucky British designer will be rewarded with a six-month placement at his design agency.
Here, Programme Information gives the low down on Philippe and all the contestants.
Genre: Reality
