Apple Starck Project Bringing 'Brain With Motorcycle Helmet' This Summer

There's nothing better than when a brilliant industrial designer like Philippe Starck gets the opportunity to design for a massively powerful manufacturer like Apple. This week we're hearing from Starck via a French radio show that he's worked with Apple for several years on a project which will be released this summer – a "revolutionary" product at that. What we're doing now is combing through the Starck archives to see if we can glean some information and put together some puzzle pieces that equal out to be what Apple may have helped this man bring to the world this year.

First we're going to have you take a look at a video which has Starck speaking about his collaboration with Lacie for a couple of external harddrives. These drives were released in 2008, this putting them well in line with lines of thought that could have made their way into the Apple design process as he did this project at once. He makes an infamous comment here, that these drives are like "brain with motorcycle helmet", calling on the protection the drive offers the information it contains. Have a peek here:

These drives are extremely simple, work with Apple products of course, and have many of the "timeless" qualities touted by Apple products inside the last few years (for starters). These drives also have touch abilities without a whole lot of direction on the surface. Apple has pushed some boundaries of Gesture technology with their latest updates to Mac OS X as well as their mobile line iOS for iPhone and iPad. Will intuitive gesture technology make its way into the Starck Apple project this year? Count on it.

Starck is currently under exclusive contract with SLS Hotels for architecture, this contract spanning until 2022. Don't expect that Apple will be building any gigantic structures with Starck therefor, of course. Starck has worked on automotive projects – oddly enticing designs, indeed, as well as home and office furnishings. Could Apple be getting into the furniture business this year? Not likely.

We'll be following the Starck connection to Apple as closely as possible over the next few months – more details as they present themselves!