Phillippe Starck is never satisfied. There’s nothing he hasn’t reimagined, reinvented or rebuilt – it’s made him the most respected product designer in the world. Now he’s decreed that the design world itself needs a kick up the ergonomics too, and will be whittling down 12 young hopefuls to find his one worthy successor. But if they think it will be easy to impress the master, they’re wrong.

Look around you. Everything, from the device upon which you read this to the cup you’ll drink your next coffee from, is a designer’s creative vision. Who are the new upstarts who will shape your world? In this tense competition, where top designer Phillippe Starck seeks his successor, an argument erupts as the competitors face a brutal challenge and an 11th-hour rescue brings drama.

Send in the clowns! That’s design guru Phillippe Starck’s answer to the problem of finding the next young creative visionary who will design our world. So far, to put it bluntly, our hopefuls have struggled to impress the master. Will a stint at clown school help add necessary playfulness and chaos to their work? It’s fun, but our remaining eight discover that staying in the running is no joke.

One of the keys to design is… redesign. If it’s not right – fix it. Unfortunately for our eight remaining hopefuls, Phillippe Starck reckons the previous show was all wrong. They failed to interpret the brief correctly and must do it over. Four will be sent home this week. It’s tough, but it’s a real insight into what it takes to make it in this competitive, creative world.

Living up to the high standards of creative design genius Phillippe Starck has proven… brutal. Perhaps the contestants’ frayed nerves will be soothed by a break with his maker, who has turned Starck’s out-of-this-world designs into real-life products for 20 years. But as we discover, perfection is a necessity at every level of the design chain, and this will be one of their toughest tasks yet.

Take the stress level of the average The Apprentice finalist. Now double it. This is not one of those shows where they have to ramp up tension in the edit – it’s been plain to see on each competitor’s face since day one. Phillippe Starck is exacting – he has to be. Design is everything; perfection or nothing. Our finalists have one last chance to wow him. Will they succeed?