Felt Chair | FC/1L

Profile Marc Newson, Product designer Marc Newson is one of the most accomplished and influential designers of his generation. At 45, he has already worked across a wide range of disciplines to create everything from chairs, household objects, a bicycle and a concept car to restaurants, a recording studio and interiors of private and commercial jets, for clients based in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.. Born in Sydney, Australia, Newson spent his childhood travelling in Europe and Asia, before studying jewellery and sculpture at Sydney College of the Arts. He started experimenting with furniture design as a student and, after graduating in 1984, was awarded a grant from the Australian Crafts Council, and staged an exhibition - featuring the Lockheed Lounge - at the Roslyn Oxley Gallery in Sydney. In 1987 Newson moved to Tokyo where he lived and worked until 1991 designing such pieces as the Orgone Lounge, Black Hole Table and Felt Chair, which were widely exhibited in Asia and Europe. Newson set up a studio in Paris in 1991, and won commissions from prestigious European manufacturers including Flos for lighting, Cappellini and Moroso for furniture. He formed a joint venture, the Ikepod watch company, to manufacture the watches he designed, and produced limited editions of aluminium furniture including the Event Horizon Table and Orgone Chair, exhibited at the Galerie Kreo in Paris, whose proprietor, Didier Krzentowski, is the leading expert on Newson’s works and composes his Catalogue Raisonné. During the mid-late 1990s, Newson also designed a series of restaurants - Coast in London, Manchester’s Mash & Air, Osman in Cologne and Canteen in Manhattan - the interior of Syn, a Tokyo recording studio and a retail system for Belgian designer, Walter Von Beirendonck’s W.&L.T. street wear label. In 1997, Newson moved to London, where he set up Marc Newson Ltd as a larger studio capable of tackling more ambitious industrial projects. He has since designed mass manufactured glassware for Iittala, kitchen and bathroom accessories for Alessi, furniture, lighting and household objects for Magis, B&B Italia, Idée and Dupont Corian. Newson has also designed vehicles such as a bicycle, the MN01, for Denmark’s Biomega, a concept car, the 021C for Ford, and the interiors of a Falcon 900B private jet. In 2002-3 he designed the Lever House Restaurant in the famous Lever House Building in Manhattan, New York, a Business Class seat, Skybed for Qantas, a cookware range for Tefal and a bathroom range, The Newson Suite, for Ideal Standard. He opened a second studio in Paris. In 2004/5 Newson received the commission from Qantas Airways to design entire aircraft interiors for the new A380 fleet and new airport lounges for Sydney and Melbourne. He designed Talby, a mobile telephone for Japan’s KDDI, the uniforms worn by the Australian Olympic team (in collaboration with Richard Allan), and worn at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, a shoe, Zvezdochka, for Nike, collections of clothing for G-Star, and Scope a range of luggage for Samsonite. He designed the bar and the sixth floor of the Hotel Puerta America in Madrid. In April 2005, Marc Newson was named as one of Time magazine’s Top 100 most influential people in the world. In 2006, Marc was appointed Creative Director of Qantas Airways, and continued working on the A380 interiors and airport lounges. He designed the Marie-Hélène de Taillac (MHT) jewellery store in Tokyo and the Azzedine Alaia shoe boutique in Paris. He created a limited edition champagne magnum container for Dom Pérignon. He was awarded the Designer of the Year prize at Design/Miami. 2007 saw the opening of Marc Newson designed Qantas First Class lounges at Sydney and Melbourne airports and in June the unveiling of his spaceplane, designed for EADS Astrium, the fulfilment of a lifelong personal ambition. In 2008 he designed ovens and hobs for Smeg, the Atmos Clock (561) for Jaeger-leCoultre and the first commercial flights of the Newson designed Qantas A380’s began. He was awarded ‘Designer of the Year’ at the London Design Festival. 2009 has seen the first of Newson’s work in high-end jewellery with the Julia necklace for Boucheron. As well as winning numerous awards, including six Good Design Awards from the Chicago Atheneum, Newson has exhibited extensively. He created Bucky, a sculptural installation for the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris in 1995, and a major retrospective of his work was held at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney (August 2001 - February 2002). In 2003, Newson was commissioned by the Fondation Cartier to design a piece of his choosing, coinciding with his 40th birthday. The result was Kelvin40, a concept jet, exhibited at the Fondation Cartier in Paris (January – May 2004) and included in Marc’s first major European retrospective originally staged at the Groninger Museum, Holland (May – September 2004) and consequently at London’s Design Museum (October 2004 – January 2005). An exhibition of Marc Newson’s new unique and limited edition pieces was shown at the Gagosian gallery, New York from January – March 2007 and a further show of new pieces at the Gagosian gallery in London from March – May 2008. Newson’s designs are present in most major permanent museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, London’s Design Museum, Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou and the Vitra Design Museum. A book on Marc Newson’s work was published by Booth-Clibborn Editions in 1999, and one by Thames & Hudson in 2001 and in 2005 a DVD was released. In March 2008, Marc Newson was the subject of a documentary in the BBC ONE ‘Imagine’ series presented by Alan Yentob. Marc Newson holds Adjunct Professorships in Design at Sydney College of the Arts and Hong Kong Polytechnic University and in the UK has been appointed ‘Royal Designer for Industry’. Awards 2010 Doctor of Visual Arts (honoris causa), University of Sydney, Australia 2009 The Chicago Athenaeum Good Design Award, USA, Qantas A380 First Suite Australian Design Award, Australia Standards, Overall Winner, Qantas A380 Australian Design Award, Australia Standards, Qantas, A380 Economy Seat Conde Nast Traveller Innovation & Design Award, Aviation, Qantas A380 Wallpaper Design Award, Smeg Ovens & Hobs 2008 Man of the Year Award, for Design, GQ Germany London Design Medal, London Design Festival Skytrax World Airline Award, Best First Class Lounge, Qantas, Sydney Australian International Design Awards, Furniture Lighting Public Space category, Qantas First Class Lounge, Sydney 2007 The LEAF International Interior Design Award, Qantas First Class Lounge, Sydney Australian Travel Innovator Award, Travel+Leisure Australia magazine 2006 Royal Designer for Industry, Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, UK Designer of the Year Award, Design Miami/ Basel The Chicago Athenaeum Good Design Award, USA, Samsonite Scope luggage range Red Dot: Best of the Best Design Award, Samsonite Scope luggage range 2005 World’s 100 most influential people, Time Magazine The Chicago Athenaeum Good Design Award, USA, Talby mobile phone The Chicago Athenaeum Good Design Award, USA, Zvezdochka shoe SIFA Awards, Berlin, G-Star collection Design & Decoration Awards, best bathroom product, UK, Ideal Standard bathroom Product Innovation Award, Bathroom & Kitchen Magazine, UK, Ideal Standard taps Classic Design Awards, Homes & Gardens with V & A Museum, UK, Ideal Standard Newson Basin Mixer Time Out Awards NY Reader’s choice, Best New Restaurant Design The Lever House L’Observateur du Design award, Paris a Star for Tefal cookery range 2004 Good Design Award (G Mark), JIDPO, Japan Talby mobile phone ADI Compasso d’Oro Award, Italy Honourable Mention Strelka cutlery 2003 Australian Design Award, Qantas Skybed The Chicago Athenaeum Good Design Award, USA, Skybed Business class seat Qantas Airways The Chicago Athenaeum Good Design Award, USA, Ideal Standard Marc Newson bathroom Elle Decoration Design Awards, UK, Ideal Standard Newson Bath 2001 The Chicago Athenaeum Good Design Award, USA, DH1 door handle Short-listed for the Selfridges Design Award, UK 2000 Compasso D’Oro Award, X1X Premio, Italy, ADI for SYGMA coat hook Design Innovationen 2000, Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen, Germany, Hemipode “Grande Date” HD 03,1999 Red Dot Design Awards, Germany, Hemipod Watch “Grande Date” HD03, 1999 1999 Concept Car Design Award, Tokyo Motor Show, Ford 021C Sydney Design Convention Award, Issue of Australian stamp Red Dot Design Award: product design, Germany, Embryo chair The George Nelson Design Award, USA 1998 Top 50 Designers Award I.D. Magazines 1993 Prix du créateur de l’année du salon du meuble, Paris, France 1984 Australian Crafts Council Award Exhibitions V&A Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France Musée National d’Art Moderne Centre Pompidou, Paris, France National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia Fond National d’Art Contemporain, Puteaux, France Museum of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, USA Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, USA Design Museum, London, UK Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany Manchester City Gallery, Manchester, UK