6/04/2007

Gio Ponti Vs Philippe Starck



Gio Ponti's oh so famous Superleggera chairs surrounded my dining room table as a youngster and I loved those chairs. So crisply designed and truly light as can be. I still adore them. So I was feeling a bit protective of my old, dear friend Mr. Ponti when I saw the Object Perdu chair by Philippe Starck. Yes, there are differences in the number of cross supports in the base but that's because Starck's chair is made of steel tubing. The designs are strikingly similar and while many no mane furniture companies came out with a related design at the time, none were so similar as Starck's. I find it a bit disappointing that such a high profile designer would design such a similar copy of such a high profile chair. By the way, Ponti's chair is still in production. What do you think?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Stark"s copy of this Ponti masterpiece looks, to me, a bit like a thick legged woman in comparison to the original. Shameless reiteration from Stark--given his talents! I'll be watching him more closely and perhaps re-examining his work.

Susan E. Snyder said...

Jer, Thanks so much for your comment. I couldn't have put it better. I'm glad someone else found this to be shameless. He is usually very original in his work but not this time.