Marc Newson - Market Week - Interview - Brief Article

Interview, Nov, 2000 by Tony Moxham

A DESIGNER OF BIG THRILLS AND SMALL WONDERS

Marc Newson walks a fine design line by giving his clients the future and the past all at once. A fan of early James Bond films and a kind of futuristic vision that nevertheless speaks pure 1960s, Newson's work comes to us ready for placement in tomorrow's bachelor pads. Raised in Sydney and on the beaches of northern Australia, Newson's first design impulses came via surf culture: His breakthrough pieces, presented in a gallery show (his first) in 1986, featured a chaise he called the "Lockheed Lounge," which was made in much the same way as a surfboard--shaped by hand from a block of foam. The chaise was then riveted with dazzling sheets of hammered aluminum.

The success that this iconic piece earned him let Newson pursue design full-time and he moved to London, where he worked on his own creations with materials "borrowed" from a model-making firm he worked for that made replica mosques. After two years, however, he was back in Sydney, where, once again inspired by beach life, he created his "Embryo" chair, a startlingly modern amorphous form that he covered in the same neoprene fabric surfers use for wetsuits. This kind of witty meeting of function and luxury is emblematic of Newson's design philosophy--one in which materials taken out of context become somehow rich, especially in combination with his heavy futuristic forms--an approach that weaves its way through most of his work.

Newson eventually made his way to Tokyo, where he fell in with Idee, an influential furniture company that helped him reach a wider audience both critically and commercially, and which helped to garner him a committed international following. This in turn led to larger, more high-profile commissions for such projects as a perfume bottle, watches, a concept car for Ford, and interiors, both residential and (in one case) that of a private jet.

But along with an "adults-only" aesthetic that softens his brand of modernism with sex appeal, part of what makes Newson's work so genius is that his vision encompasses not just the big "important" pieces, but little ones as well. While other designers concentrate on creating the next iconic lamp or chair, Newson has also chosen to focus on the kinds of objects that most folks never even consider as having been "designed" at all--tackling biggies such as a dishrack, salt and pepper shakers, a bottle opener and re-usable bottle stopper, and a toilet roll holder--each as wonderfully luxe as his larger works. And for the hair-aesthetes among us, Newson recently began working in tandem with 'do-maestro Vidal Sassoon (who, in a reprise of the celebrated cut he gave Mia Farrow more than thirty years ago, recently sheared the hunky Newson's trademark long locks) on a revolutionary about-face for such banal objects as hair dryers and curling and straightening irons.

Tony Moxham is a contributing editor to this magazine.