Philippe Starck, born in Paris in 1949, he is one of the most original and creative designers of our time. He has obtained many important acknowledgements such as the Grand Prix National de la Création industrielle and the Honor Award of the American Institute of Architects, he considers himself as "a Japanese architect, an American art director, a German industrial designer, a French artistic director, an Italian furniture designer".
The ' Juicy Salif ' was one of the first projects by Starck for Alessi, devised in the second half of the 1980s (with the Walter Wayle II wall clock, the Hot Bertaa kettle and the large Max le Chinois colander). An excellent example of Alessis role as artistic mediator in the most turbulent areas of creative potential (as this was Starck's response to Alessi's precise breifing for a stainless steel tray). It remains unparalleled in its ability to generate discussions about its meaning and design, partly because of its unconventional use of what semiologists refer to as the decorative veil which, even though generally in a less overt manner, is inexorably destined to cover all objects created by man. To fully understand the true meaning of its existence, it is possibly necessary to refer to the theories of Leroy-Gourham, who considers the notion of functional approximation to be fundamental. This notion suggests that there is always a certain degree of freedom in interpreting relationships between Form and Function: it is precisely this continual play between Form and Function that leads to the decorative veil mentioned above, that Floch considers to be the manifestation of the legendary and aesthetic dimension of the object, as originally defined by Greimas. As well as being the most controversial citrus fruit squeezer of the 20th century, it has also become one of the icons of design of the 1990s, and it continues to be one of the most provocatively intelligent articles in the Alessi catalogue.
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