Ondrej Holzman Elite designer Marc Newson is not afraid of anything. He has already designed bicycles, motorboats, jets, pipes or backpacks, and he has achieved success with most of his projects. The 51-year-old Australian himself says that it should not be unusual for designers to have a broad scope. "Design is about solving problems. If you can't do that with different subjects, then I don't think you're a good designer," he says.
In profile The Wall Street Journal with Marc Newson he was talking about his career, design, favorite artists and some of his products. The career of the respected Australian designer is indeed rich and recently he is also talked about in connection with Apple. A long-time friend of Jony Ive, the chief designer of the Californian company, participated in the creation of the Apple Watch.
However, Newson does not work full-time at Apple, from time to time a product with a different logo appears from him, such as the most recent impressive fountain pen of the German brand Montblanc. During his thirty-year career, he also worked on larger projects: bicycles for Biomega, motorboats for Riva, a jet for Fondation Cartier, jackets for G-Star RAW, taproom for Heineken or backpacks for Louis Vuitton.
Nevertheless, the symbol of Newson's career is primarily the Lockheed Lounge chair, which he designed shortly after his studies and looks as if it were cast from liquid silver. In twenty years with this "piece of furniture" he set three world records for the most expensive auctioned modern design proposal by a living designer.
His latest work – the aforementioned Montblanc fountain pen – is related to Newson's love of the writing instrument. "A lot of people with pens not only write, but also play with them," explains Newson, why his limited edition pens have, for example, a magnetic closure, where the cap fits perfectly with the rest of the pen.
Newson says he loves fountain pens because they get used to you. “The tip of the pen changes depending on the angle at which you write. That's why you should never lend your fountain pen to someone else," he explains, adding that he must also always have an A4 hardcover notebook with him to jot down his ideas.
Newson has a clear design philosophy. “It's a set of principles that can be universally applied to anything. The only thing that changes is the material and the scope. Basically, there is no difference between designing a ship and designing a pen," says Newson, who - like his colleague Jony Ive - is a big car lover.
If the London resident and father of two had 50 thousand dollars (1,2 million crowns) to spare, he would spend it on repairing one of his old cars. "I started collecting cars four years ago. My favorites are the 1955 Ferrari and the 1929 Bugatti,” calculates Newson.
In recent months, cars have also been a relatively big topic in connection with Apple, which is creating a secret division that, with the automotive industry deals with. So it's possible that maybe it was in Cupertino that Newson could be involved in designing his first real car; so far it only has, for example, the Ford concept (pictured above). In addition, he himself is not very fond of current cars.
"There have been times when cars have carried all the good things about progress, but right now the auto industry is going through a crisis," Newson believes.
Well, we can't wait to see what Mr. Newson will show us with the cars. :-)