Design Star

New reality show focusing on design. It will air on HGTV starting July 23rd and it pits 10 designers in “clever design challenges” to win “the ultimate prize” – their own show on HGTV. The competitors include David, a “formally trained artist” that also builds furniture; Vanessa, who started her own interior design firm at 20; Tym, who looks like he’ll be the “funny guy”; Teman, who has a Master’s in Arch degree from Harvard, but designs jewelry, textiles and interiors; Teran, who is Teman’s twin brother and has the exact same CV; Joseph, also a Master’s in Arch from Harvard (did they hold tryouts in the arch studios in Cambridge??); Temple, who claims to be a single, stay-at-home mom (how does that work), but does not really identify her design skills.; and Donna, who is holding a pink fur purse in her photo, why?

If Teman and Teran’s design can be judged on their outfits alone, then it looks like they will be great at wooing men in their 60’s who love golf pants. Seriously, they look like they should be teeing it up on the 16th hole.

But that’s nothing compared to Ramona. She calls herself a “trash to treasure designer” because she recycles crap and makes it into…well other crap? Okay I haven’t seen any of her work yet, so that might seem harsh. But when asked who she would love to design a home for this is her answer: “Martha Stewart – because I’m bold.” She is the one who will try too hard to be different, because that’s what she thinks “art” is about.

I’m not sure I have any hope for this show – at least in terms of showing us good design solutions, but we’ll see how it goes. I wish they could have gotten Karim Rashid for this program, instead of the terrible Made in the USA.