Renowned designer Marc Newson joined Apple Friday to become a part of Jonathan Ive's team, highlighting the company's focus on design as it starts branching out to lifestyle products.
With Newson on board, Apple now ha two of the best-known designers in the world working together to craft future products for the company. When asked if Newson will be participating in the development of the iWatch, Apple has kept mum but it's still exciting to imagine what the designer will bring to the company.
This isn't the first time, however, that Newson will be working with Ive. The two have been friends for years and Newson worked on some designs for Apple over the last year. "I'm full of admiration and respect for the extraordinary design work that has been produced by Jony and the team at Apple. I am enormously proud to join them," Newson said.
Considered to be one of the most influential designers of his time, Newson has worked on designs for basically everything all over the world, from furniture and household items to cars and aircraft, and even sculptural and commissioned pieces. Born in Sydney, Australia, he started working on furniture design when he was a student, moving on to stage his first exhibition with a grant given by the Australian Crafts Council.
His first exhibition and probably most famous work is called the Lockheed Lounge, an aluminum-covered chair Newson built with his bare hands. It has set three consecutive world records in auctions, selling for $1.6 million in 2006. That record price was also the highest ever paid to a living contemporary designer at the time.
Newson was once named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World and has been appointed to be the United Kingdom's Royal Designer for Industry. His works are exhibited in major museums, ike the Vitra Design Museum, the Centre Georges Pompidou, London's Design Museum and V&A, and MoMA in New York. Today, Newson's works represents nearly 25 percent of the contemporary design market.
As a designer, Newson doesn't think he has a certain style but believes there is consistency in what he has created. As for his design philosophy, he feels it is his job to make things betters, to imagine the future and consider how things will be. And that simplicity will win out over complexity.
With that kind of thinking guiding him, Newson looks like he'll definitely fit right in with Apple.
