And If You Don't Watch Out, You Could Become A Preening Bastard...

Now this is fun. I submitted the Fire Bowl to Dexigner.com and wound up right next to Phillipe Starck. This doesn't really mean anything of course, since posts there are chronological just like any other blog, but I can pretend, right?

Starck has been my design nemesis for a long time… the guy to beat. He's done some of everything at one point or another, which is exactly the way I like to play. I'm really only happy when I'm doing/trying/learning something new. In general, if I know going in that I can pull something off, it already feels sort of done. I much prefer the surprise factor of doing it for the first time.

So I'm not so much a fan of Starck's product as I am of his process. I mean, yeah, he's done some very nice things and some terribly clever stuff, but what I dig is the fact that he's found a way to convince people that he can do anything. That is the surest way for a designer to stay fresh and engaged in their work, I think. And it seems to be a terribly rare situation. Most seem to get stuck in an agency doing yet another of whatever they were working on last week.

So Starck's the guy I'd like to outdo on project variety. I figure, If you aim impossibly high you tend to get farther than you might with more realistic aspirations. Picasso is the guy to trounce for sheer production. Hunter S. Thompson is the current challenge for writing (used to be Lew Welch when I was a poet, but I did beat him… probably only because he checked out early though). Etc. Etc. You pick the top guy and then you set out to get one week in front of them. Mind you, there's no sense actually checking your progress, looking over your shoulder or being catty about the whole thing. I just find that for me, making the challenge a little bit personal is a good motivational tool.

Anyway, it gave me a bit of a chuckle. Heh.