Historical information
Marc Newson is an industrial designer from Sydney, Australia, born on October 20th, 1963. He attended Sydney College of the Arts to study jewelry and sculpture, graduating in 1984. During the early 1990’s Newson lived in Tokyo and then Paris, working from a studio until moving to London in 1997 where he and his partner Benjamin de Haan began working in a larger studio; Marc Newson Ltd. Mark currently runs the studio in London and another in Paris. Mark is also an adjunct design professor for Sydney College of the Arts and Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Creative Director of Qantas Airways and co-founder of the Ikepod watch company.
Works
Marc Newson is known for his broad design works in products, interiors, and transportation, all to which are unique and original. Over the years, he has incorporated furniture design into his works including chairs, household items and accessories. His design concepts take everyday objects and create them into art pieces to become functional and aesthetic. Newson’s artwork has awarded him many accomplishments and recognition including The Royal Designer in Industry of the UK, an honorary doctorate from Sydney University, and an issue in Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. His designs can be found in many museums around the world such as the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, London’s Design Museum and V&A, Vitra Design Museum in Germany, and the MoMA in New York. According to Marc-Newson.com, Newson’s work accounts for almost twenty-five percent of the markets’ contemporary design.
Characteristics
Newson’s work focuses on industrial designs involving a diverse range of products and clientele from jets, bicycles, and cars to restaurants, homes, jewelry and other merchandise. Marc aims to create simplicity in all of his designs and has passion for materials and how things are made. He believes his designs bring a personal discovery and new ideas. Newson finds most of his inspiration from nature, providing most of his signature shapes as seamless, fluid and organic. “To say nature is perfect from the point of view of design couldn’t be more of an understatement” –Mark Newson.
Motifs/Ornamentation
Marc’s designs can best be described as smooth or flowing lines with biomorphic influence such as natural shapes with translucence or transparency. One of Newson’s most famous designs is the Lockheed Lounge chair (1986) made from aluminum and fiberglass. Like this piece, most of Marc’s designs are very modern round forms with almost no sharp edges. In his early work, he used Day-Glo colors such as orange, yellow and green. Some of his projects are constructed from materials such as steel, aluminum, marble, shagreen, carbon fiber and polyethylene.
Influence
Marc Newson’s contribution to design is outstandingly remarkable and percieved all over the world. “What really inspired me was coming from a do-it-yourself culture. It works really brilliantly for designers because designers have to work everywhere. It’s a truly global industry. Everything I do is designed for everyone everywhere.”-Marc Newson. Marc’s creations not only inspire people all across the industry, but everyone around the globe.
“To me, Marc is like the Picasso of design,” says Reed Krakoff, the creative director of Coach, who owns about a dozen Newson pieces. “He integrates design with the techniques of his time, but the technique doesn’t become the design. He’s clearly one of the great design minds of our time.”
“I think Marc is fairly peerless now,” said Jonathan Ive, who met Newson 15 years ago in Japan. “Marc’s forms are often imitated, but what other designers seldom imitate is his preoccupation with materials and processes. You have to start with an understanding of the material. Often your innovation is just coming up with a new way to use material.” Marc Newson is truly a phenomenal individual in all aspects of innovations and his artwork will leave a legacy for decades to come.
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