Comments on: Taking a Sh*t on Philippe Starck

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 03:19:35 +0000

I missed those shops in China but I will have to check them out next time. It makes you wonder how much of the “designer” furniture you see in restaurants and hotels are actually real! Such an interesting dilemma…

By: Didi

Didi — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 07:30:53 +0000

Adam, if you are surprised by this small shop in Thailand, go to Zhong Shan or Fo Shan in China, you’ll be more shocked. You can find all kinds imitation of designer furniture, lighting, etc., but not in a small shop, in showrooms of thousands square meter just next to the factory where these things are produced… That is really a sight. I am a product designer working in Hong Kong. Recently I found many “underground” shops here selling designer furniture at a incredible low price (half to 30% of original price). After I did some research, these shops import their products from China, where out of factory price is around 1%-5% of the original price…

By: Pete Kercher

Pete Kercher — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:45:52 +0000

Good answer, Adam: there is no excuse for counterfeiting, even if it goes by the dubious name of “a tribute to…”. It’s still a rip-off, just by another name.
The problem is that designers (and far too often also their clients) are lethargic about taking out what little legal protection is available. Existing design protection models all leave a lot to be desired, as they tend to protect the styling only and pretend the function doesn’t exist, as though that could all be covered by the inventiveness clause in patents, but there’s a huge grey area between what really can be protected by patents and the mere protection of styling and surface… it’s the “function” part of the “design = form & function” equation. Designers are worse than merely lethargic about demanding changes to these rather useless forms of protection: if anyone else were so negligent of their own interests, they would be a laughing stock, but hey, who cares? Designers are creatives and creatives don’t understand the law, do they? They just complain that it doesn’t function.. so why don’t we get our heads together and design a better one? I’ve been conducting a one-man lobby for years, including at WIPO and OAMI, but the real problem is that I get no backing from designers, so: no critical mass = no political reaction. I’ll put this post up on LinkedIn too…

By: Adam Craft

Adam Craft — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:24:33 +0000

In short, I feel that ripping off someone’s IP is wrong and not fair. Their are far too many quality designers capable of producing excellent original works. I do not see a reason to make an exact copy an existing product. I can’t imagine anyone feeling otherwise. Sorry for coming off too vague in my article.

By: Pete Kercher

Pete Kercher — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:05:33 +0000

Here’s a comment I posted to this item on LinkedIn:

“Adam, your posting on your website is fairly non-committal about this, while at least one other poster just says it’s cool… Elsewhere on this group’s discussions, there is an implied complaint that ADI seems to focus on things like protecting intellectual property rights, to the (presumed) detriment of the interests of young designers (although quite how the reasoning works is not explained).
So, what is your take on this? Is copycatting cool or is it to be condemned? If you adopt a position one way or the other yourself, you may get a discussion going.”

By: Gabe Holland

Gabe Holland — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:00:15 +0000

I think its hilarious that the knocked-off “toy chair” by Philippe became the “toilet chair”. It almost makes it seems like they thought about what they were doing.

By: Daniel Wohlslagel

Daniel Wohlslagel — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:01:04 +0000

Dude, that is hilarious!

By: kat

kat — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:09:15 +0000

Haha! I love it! thats so funny, i love Asia, Totally recommend Bali! Oh and love the look of the new site!

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:51:53 +0000

They were pretty incredible fakes for sure. Not sure about the tooling. My guess is that they made there own tooling because they had some derivative designs that would require dif. tools. I didn’t ask a lot about price but the green fiberglass chair above was about $200 usd.

By: Collin

Collin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:59:55 +0000

The accuracy in replication is incredible. I wonder if the same tools were used in manufacturing or if they re-tooled. What was the cost comparison like? Expensive? Competitive? Cheap? (What would the shipping costs be like? j/k) Good find!