For all you MOB design-types

[mmoore]

There is a profile in the NY Times on Phillipe Starck, and this quote at the bottom caught my eye:

"When Starck says he’s “an explorer,” he’s not just talking about his pioneering imagination. He recently became the creative director for Virgin Galactic, which aims to fly people to the moon by 2009. One of his more relatively down-to-earth projects is a 118-meter mega-yacht — a high-tech, low-profile vessel that creates no wake, even at 25 knots. But what really gets his heart racing are motorcycles. “I have 25 motorbikes around the world,” boasts the designer, who created a super-stripped-down bike for Voxan. “It’s a pure product of the future.” And though he has designed an environmentally — not to mention financially — friendly car, he never drives one himself. “I can’t survive without my motorcycles — and maybe I will die on a motorcycle.”"

[Mostrobelle]

http://www.dezeen.com/2008/01/29/vox...ilippe-starck/

this is just one of them he's designed. He's got another in the Guggenheim I believe. It might be part of their permanent collection or it might have just been part of that Art of the Motorcycle exhibit that ran for a while. http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition...otorcycle.html

Starck is known for doing some pretty funky stuff. He designs a lot of really painful chairs too. [laugh]

[mmoore]

Originally Posted by Mostrobelle

http://www.dezeen.com/2008/01/29/vox...ilippe-starck/

this is just one of them he's designed. He's got another in the Guggenheim I believe. It might be part of their permanent collection or it might have just been part of that Art of the Motorcycle exhibit that ran for a while. http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition...otorcycle.html

Starck is known for doing some pretty funky stuff. He designs a lot of really painful chairs too. [laugh]

I saw that bike at the Las Vegas Guggenheim (that phrase just seems so wrong) - it is an Aprillia. Looked like a big shrimp to me.

Found a pic:



Oh, and here's a video - check the snazzy jacket!

[Bad Dog]

Big Shrimp..oxymoron.

;D

That's the Aprillia Centauro, I believe.

His designs are good, and have elements that I find gorgeous, but they have just enough of that modern industrial design 'stink" on them that I find them unappealing.

I don't know quite how to put it, other than it's a desire to change everything about the form that leaves it just a little too out there for my tastes.

I guess that makes me a philistine, but I can't help but like just a little nostalgia in my modern design.

[Mostrobelle]

His stuff is pretty hit or miss for me. Every now and then he comes up with a real gem--I think I speak for the general feeling about him in the design community at-large (?) He's prolific...like really prolific. And he does interiors and furniture and industrial and, and, and... he's fairly well-known and generally respected in all of those venues. That's not easy to do. Personally, I like his motorcycle designs. I favor the Euro streetfighter look over the Japanese racer thing that's so ubiquitous over here in the States.

[Reddymon]

Originally Posted by Michael Moore

Oh, and here's a video - check the snazzy jacket!

I watched the video. The guy is amusing and has a very fashionable accent but I have always been a little leery of designers who like to talk about the "design process".

Years ago in school the prof showed the class a video featuring the speeches of two famous architects, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd Wright. The video was edited to show each man talking about his "design process" and basically both were saying the same things, often word for word. They seemed to totally agree with each other. The video ended with some pictures of their designs which of course looked nothing alike.

So design for me is the good stuff is what I like and the bad stuff is everything else. And your taste ain't my taste. But that don't make you wrong.

[Reddymon]

Originally Posted by DrunkenMonkey

That's the Aprillia Centauro, I believe.

His designs are good, and have elements that I find gorgeous, but they have just enough of that modern industrial design 'stink" on them that I find them unappealing.

I don't know quite how to put it, other than it's a desire to change everything about the form that leaves it just a little too out there for my tastes.

I guess that makes me a philistine, but I can't help but like just a little nostalgia in my modern design.

Well said. I do not like Starcks bike designs. The bikes I am drawn to must still look like a bike (nostagia?) though I think a little industrial (just a little) is a good thing. It is sorta like why I like Monsters. I could own a Bimota Tesi 3D without any problem if the body graphics were toned down.

[eobo]

This is at the SF-MOMA right here in town guys. In the Design permanent collection.
Sweet bike.

I love so many bikes. Each has its place in my heart. NOT every bike but a few. I don't like everything Stark has done, the bar at the redwood room at the Clift Hotel ? wtf? hurray glass? wtf?

Some of the stuff out of his studio is mad genius though and these statements he's made just won him some respect from me. [thumbsup] .

Originally Posted by Michael Moore

I saw that bike at the Las Vegas Guggenheim (that phrase just seems so wrong) - it is an Aprillia. Looked like a big shrimp to me.

Found a pic:



Oh, and here's a video - check the snazzy jacket!

[johnc]

Originally Posted by DrunkenMonkey

That's the Aprillia Centauro, I believe.

it's the Aprilia Moto 6.5

i came very close to purchasing a new one on visit to paris back in 2002 ... i aksed a few owners there what the downside of this model was, and they all advised the bike is a rolling rust bucket ... but, if i was to use it here in california, not so much of a concern. [thumbsup]