Philippe Starck’s School of Design

The BBC is accepting applications from aspiring designers to take part in a new reality TV show that promises to be Fame Academy meets the Apprentice for the design world. “Philippe Starck’s School of Design” will be on air next year, and will follow the French super-designer as he whittles down 25 young hopefuls bidding for a placement in his studio.

“We are trying to find the talent of young people,” says Starck. “We don’t want the fashion victim or the design victim; we’re seeking the people who do, the people who actually make something.”
The final 10 designers will join Starck in Paris where they will be asked to perform a series of tasks relating to real design projects. At the end of the course at least one student will be rewarded with a six-month placement at Starck’s design agency. “I hope these people will be good because if they are good, definitively, that will change their lives and hopefully improve other people’s lives,” Starck says.

The series will air in 2009, and is produced by Twofour. Entry is open to anyone who feels they have a talent for design, regardless of whether or not they have formal training. Apply now: bbc.co.uk/schoolofdesign
Read icon’s December 2006 interview with Phillipe Starck.

Words

 Beatrice Galilee