Product Designer Marc Newson

As a designer Newson seems more in touch with the materials and processes of designing than the conventional definition of beauty for the object his designing. It is his odd aesthetic that has contributed to his many of his designs being art world successes, a unique accomplishment for a product designer.

"Newson’s career as arguably the most influential industrial designer of his generation and the leading exponent of the so-called design-art movement may stand as much on the quasi-­moral power of design to affirm the social virtues of wit, proportion, elegance and simplicity, as on his obsession with futuristic forms and modernist aesthetics. Not that he has any overt agenda as a design evangelist. His motivation, apart from the business of it all, is the spirit of personal discovery, not civic edification. Each project is a fresh encounter with the material world."

-NYTimes

Article: Is There Anything Marc Newson Hasn't Designed?

Slideshow: Timeline of His Work

Product Design History: Where did the Single Slice Toasters Go?

I am surprised that single slice toasters are not available. Given limited counter space in smaller kitchens and a sizable single population one would think that option would be in the market.


The Toastmaster
Bachelor/ette Toasters

The Toaster Museum Foundation

Commuter Bike: BMW G 650 GS

I am thinking about an alternate mode of transportation and the entry level G 650 GS has caught my eye. Designed for the street and can accommodate light trail riding with 66mpg has me looking forward to summer.

How to Get a Product to Market Today

It just may have never been easier for a Designer to get a great ideal to market than it is today. With the connections afforded by the internet and programs like Kickstarter almost anyone can test out the value of their ideals.

How one company is revolutionizing product development

History: Capital of the 20th Century, Detroit Disassembeled

"There is no culture — for lack of a better word — no context of public memory and social expectation that would bind together all that the city contains.

What does it add up to, all this abandonment of lives and buildings, neighborhoods and property? It doesn’t seem to add up to anything, other than the decontextualized spectacle itself and the demographic souvenir-hunting opportunities it provides. This city is never coming back; whatever happens next will be without urban precedent because the context of city no longer applies in this place where history has finally run out. And so the reason we come to Detroit — immigrants, tourists, artists, journalists alike — is to engage a fantasy about how we can always walk away from the past, from the now blown promise of an erstwhile prosperity that was once made real for generations of Americans. There’s probably not a better place in this country, maybe in the world, for this kind of work."

- Jerry Herron

More from the Article: The Forgetting Machine



NYTimes Article: Dismantling Detroit

Kayne West Aspires to be the Next Steve Jobs

Not all creative people are designers - I'm just saying, my hope is that the skilled professionals are used to bring this vision to life.


Other Hip-Hop Moguls have made the leap to creating products. For example, Dr Dre launch a very successful product line of headphones called "the beats" in a partnership with Monster, Inc.

According to postings from West’s Twitter account, he’s been inspired not only by Jobs’ example, but also by current events and the need for change: “We need to take what Michael Jackson felt and McQueen and Steve Jobs and we need [to] make things better… The adrenaline is running… I don’t know if I can even get to sleep now… From Wall Street to the London riots to Chicago murders… I sit everyday and ask what can I do to make a difference… There are so many broken systems from the economy to school systems [to] jail systems… we need experts for this… We need scientist[s] and top world designers to directly affect governments…”

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Reworking the Chain Saw

The Worx JawSaw, makes the chainsaw more approachable for everyday use by enclosing the blade. The design team also added an innovative plunging motion to activate the blades cutting. Though less powerful than the standard chainsaw with the right price point it could be a tool a homeowner would consider.