Marc Newson

This volume covering Marc Newson's design career can, if you are ambitious enough, read like a catalogue of how to live. Imagine waking up in the morning, taking a bath, drying your hair, getting dressed, putting on your glasses, spritzing yourself with perfume, sitting down to eat a breakfast of tea with eggs and toast, checking your watch, packing your suitcase, driving to the airport, catching a flight, and sailing off on a luxurious yacht.

What's remarkable about this scenario, aside from its opulence, is that everything in it could be a Newson design: the bed, bathtub, hair dryer, clothes, shoes, glasses, perfume bottle, electric kettle, teapot, toaster, skillet, spatula, cooktop, plates, utensils, watch, chair, table, lighting, suitcase, car, plane, and even the yacht.

No project is too small or too great for Newson, and his career is a testament to what one person with limitless ambition, ingenuity, curiosity, and versatility can achieve. From mass-produced objects to limited-edition furniture to one-of-a-kind superworks, Newson has blurred boundaries, mapped new territories, and risen to the top of his field in the process. To call the contributions Newson has made to the design world groundbreaking and influential is hardly adequate—more accurately, his is now the benchmark against which other designers' work must inevitably be compared.

This encyclopaedic tome covers all of Newson's works to date, beginning with foundational early pieces such as the Pod of Drawers and the Lockheed Lounge (which has broken the world record for the highest price paid for a piece of furniture by a living designer), in encyclopaedia-style entries ordered chronologically by category: Objects, Furniture, Interiors, Transport, and Jewellery & Timepieces. Each description explores the story behind and the making of the piece, and is amply furnished with quotes from the designer himself. The book is rounded out by a visual index of Newson's complete works, a chronology of his life, a bibliography, and his exhibition history.