Marc Newson Australian, b. 1963

"If somebody asked me about my inspiration I would say that it's not the people and it's not the things, it's travel and experiencing different environments."
-Marc Newson

Career

Newson co-founded the Ikepod watch company in 1994, and would later leave the company in 2012. In 1997, he moved to London where he and business partner Benjamin de Haan set up Marc Newson Ltd. He is currently an adjunct professor of design at Sydney College of the Arts (where he first studied sculpture and jewellery) and is the creative director for Qantas. 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, and £1,100,000 at a 2009 auction at Phillips de Pury & Company. At the 2006 Design Miami fair he produced 12 Chop Top tables, all of which sold out in 20 minutes at an estimated $170,000. In April 2015, his Lockheed Lounge chair sold at auction for £UK2.4 million ($AU4.69 million), making it the most expensive object ever sold by a living designer.