Philippe Starck
Life’s Work: Philippe Starck
An Interview with Philippe Starck by Alison Beard
Philippe Starck has said that he can design a chair in two minutes and a hotel in a day and a half. Preferring to work alone, sometimes “naked in the bedroom,” the Frenchman has devised thousands of products, interiors, and buildings for clients ranging from Microsoft to Baccarat.
HBR: What’s the secret to working so quickly and productively?
Starck: I am sort of a modern monk. My wife and I have a collection of cabins in the middle of nowhere, and we stay out of everything. We don’t go to dinners. We don’t go to cocktails. We don’t go to movies. We don’t watch TV. I don’t use my energy on other people. I just work and read. I live with myself in front of my white page. Of course, for much of the year I have to travel, speak to journalists, engineers, things like that, and it’s the worst. But from the 15th of June to the 15th of September, I live completely secluded, locked in one of my houses, working from 8 in the morning to 8 at night, or making my own biorhythm: work three hours, sleep 45 minutes, work three hours, sleep 45 minutes, for 24 hours, without eating. It’s a little sick. But I’m like Dr. Faust. I signed a contract with the devil to sell my life for creativity.
It sounds as if you don’t like working with others.
I never collaborate—not because I don’t like other people but because I am not able to do it. I’m one of the fastest organic computers on the market, but I need to be alone.
Do you ever talk to customers or end users?
No. I don’t read architecture or design magazines. I never go into the shops that sell my things or to fairs. I don’t speak to other designers or architects. I am a lonely guy—earnest, rigorous, an incredible worker—and I just make what I can, how I can, when I can.
But to manage so much, you must need to delegate some things.
My way is to not delegate. I design everything very precisely, so when I give my team a project, nothing is in
An Interview with Philippe Starck by Alison Beard
Philippe Starck has said that he can design a chair in two minutes and a hotel in a day and a half. Preferring to work alone, sometimes “naked in the bedroom,” the Frenchman has devised thousands of products, interiors, and buildings for clients ranging from Microsoft to Baccarat.
HBR: What’s the secret to working so quickly and productively?
Starck: I am sort of a modern monk. My wife and I have a collection of cabins in the middle of nowhere, and we stay out of everything. We don’t go to dinners. We don’t go to cocktails. We don’t go to movies. We don’t watch TV. I don’t use my energy on other people. I just work and read. I live with myself in front of my white page. Of course, for much of the year I have to travel, speak to journalists, engineers, things like that, and it’s the worst. But from the 15th of June to the 15th of September, I live completely secluded, locked in one of my houses, working from 8 in the morning to 8 at night, or making my own biorhythm: work three hours, sleep 45 minutes, work three hours, sleep 45 minutes, for 24 hours, without eating. It’s a little sick. But I’m like Dr. Faust. I signed a contract with the devil to sell my life for creativity.
It sounds as if you don’t like working with others.
I never collaborate—not because I don’t like other people but because I am not able to do it. I’m one of the fastest organic computers on the market, but I need to be alone.
Do you ever talk to customers or end users?
No. I don’t read architecture or design magazines. I never go into the shops that sell my things or to fairs. I don’t speak to other designers or architects. I am a lonely guy—earnest, rigorous, an incredible worker—and I just make what I can, how I can, when I can.
But to manage so much, you must need to delegate some things.
My way is to not delegate. I design everything very precisely, so when I give my team a project, nothing is in