| Marc Newson | |
|---|---|
Marc Newson at the Financial Times Business of Luxury Gala Reception, June 2011 |
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| Born | 1963 (age 48–49) Sydney, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | Industrial Designer |
| Known for | Lockheed Lounge chair |
| Spouse | Charlotte Stockdale |
| Children | 2 |
Marc Andrew Newson CBE (born 1963) was born in Sydney, Australia. Now based in London, he is a successful industrial designer who works in aircraft design, product design, furniture design, jewellery, and clothing. He incorporates a design style known as biomorphism to his various designs. This style uses smooth flowing lines, translucency, transparency and tends to have an absence of sharp edges.
He is of Greek origins on his mother's side.[1] He married Charlotte Stockdale in 2008[2] and has two children.
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In 1984 Newson graduated at the Sydney College of the Arts in jewellery and sculpture. In 1986 he was awarded a grant from the Australian Crafts Council and staged a first exhibition featuring the Lockheed Lounge. The following year he moved to Tokyo, where he lived and worked until he moved to Paris in 1991 where he set up a studio.[3]
In 1997 he moved to London, where he and his partner Benjamin de Haan set up Marc Newson Ltd and still has a house in Paris. He is currently adjunct professor in design at Sydney College of the Arts (where he first studied sculpture and jewellery) and is the creative director for Qantas.[4] He co-founded and owns the Ikepod watch company.[5]
He describes his 1988 Embryo Chair as "one of the first pieces where I hit upon a discernible style."[6] In 2005, he was selected as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of the year.
His work has become amongst the highest selling in auctions. One of his three Lockheed Lounge chairs sold for $968,000 at Sotheby's in 2006,[7] and £1,100,000 at a 2009 auction at Phillips de Pury & Company.[8] At the 2006 Design Miami fair he produced 12 Chop Top tables, all of which sold out in 20 minutes at an estimated $170,000.[6]
Every year he races one of his four vintage sports cars - an Aston Martin, a Lamborghini, a Ferrari and a Cisitalia, in the Italian Mille Miglia and was quoted as saying: "I'm not a motor head, I don't like the new versions of any of those cars."[9]
Newson was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to design.[10][11]
Objects he has designed include:
Newson designed the Lever House Restaurant & Bar in New York in 2002 and the Canteen, also in New York, in 1999. In 2005 he designed the interiors of the Hotel Puerta America in Madrid.
He was selected as the artistic director for the 2011 Sydney New Year's Eve fire work display.[16]
Marc Newson. Design tra organicità e fantascienza by Cinzia Ferrara, Milano, Lupetti, 2005. ISBN 888391127X