In this blog post, I will be looking at Marc Newson's work and how he informed my project.
Marc Newson was born in Australia in 1963. He graduated from Sydney university in 1986 and used an aid to stage his first exhibition at the age of 23. Marc presented the 'Lockheed lounge' in that exhibition which is one of the most iconic contemporary art pieces till this day. He studied jewellery and sculpture in university. Throughout his life, Marc has worked and lived in many places like Sydney, Tokyo, Paris and London. He has worked with brands such as Nike, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Apple. Marc is one of the most well known product designers in the world and his work never fails to amaze me. Marc is known for creating products made out of unusual materials and uses smooth geometric lines, translucency and tends to avoid sharp edges by bending the material and forming rounded edges. He was listed in Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world and was appointed by the royal designer for Industry in the UK. Marc inspired me to research and learn more about product design which a progression route I ended up liking very much. I did some research on Marc's website (click here for the blog) and now I will be evaluating some of his work. Marc will be one of the designer that I will keep looking at in the future for my research and my blogs.
My project will be a multipurpose product which will be hung up on the wall. When it is folded, it will act as a storage area but when it is unfolded it can transform into a desk to study or eat.
I decided to look at some of Marc's products as he my favourite product designer. I selected 4 table products in order to focus and analyse them. I will be analysing factors such as materials, aesthetics, functionality, colours, patterns and his style of work to get inspired for my final project.
Both of these products are in the same collection of pieces he designed. The collection exhibition occurred in 2019. I was particularly fascinated by these pieces as the overall shape is very similar to the design I am thinking of creating. As my desk unfolds from the wall, it will be made out of three separate planks in order to form the shape of my table. The shape of both these tables is very similar to my 3 plank idea. Marc Newson and Heatherwick's studio were the main inspirations for my project.
Both of these designs are very minimalistic, which is something that is seen throughout most of Marc's designs. Observing how minimal yet effective Marc's work is made me very interested in creating something minimalistic. I love the simplistic designs that Marc designs. An acronym I always keep in mind when designing is 'K.I.S.S' which stands for 'Keep It Simple Stupid'. Simple products can be very effective, which is what I want to achieve.
He uses one long piece of material and then bends it to form the legs of the table. The material he uses in this case is glass which was very unexpected to me. He utilises an intricate classical glass-making technique to create the streamlined desks. I did consider glass as a material as it can be easily cleaned and convenient to write on. However, I immediately rejected it as my desk will be folding and unfolding. Using a material such as glass can cause numerous safety hazards and can be very dangerous.
One factor that he uses in this collection of pieces is the bright colours and the texture. Marc uses bright colours to make his products stand out and then uses dots to create a pattern.
I will be doing further research on the colours that I want to include. After looking at Marc's work, I do want to further research and consider bright colours as they are eye catching and can be very pleasant. However, will this distract my users while studying? If a pattern is included, will it limit my target market and perhaps make less people interested in purchasing it? Is it a smart idea to include bright colours as it might not match with the aesthetic of someone's room? These are a few of the questions I need to look into before I decide on my aesthetics.
This is another very interesting piece in his collection which was created in 2008. In comparison to the previous 2 products I looked at, this piece contains neutral and minimalistic colours. The neutral tones used can help increase the target market as this piece can complement any colours within a room. In my blog where I will be discussing about colours, I need to consider many options. One of the options is making it more modern and minimalistic like this piece, the other option can be including daring and bold colours in my design to make it more exciting or perhaps combine both. I will be looking at this in greater detail at a later stage.
The textures lines on the surface make the table look elongated as they create an illusion to make it look more elegant. I can consider using illusions such as this one in my design.
In my opinion, this product reminds me of an outline of a table. I feel like the empty space between the material is there to resemble how a normal table looks like, however, Marc decided to extrude the table and create the outline of it by bending the material used to form an unbroken line from the beginning till the end. This makes the product very unique. The material used in this product was a single block of s Striato Olimpico marble. Marble is very in fashion now and it makes a product look minimalistic and modern. I would consider using marble in my design, however, the material is too heavy which can result to many safety hazards when folding or unfolding.
Looking at this piece, made me notice a pattern throughout Marc's work that I researched. Marc doesn't use sharp edges in most of his designs as he bends the material he is working with to form rounded edges. I find this technique very fascinating as it makes the product very unique. Regarding safety hazards, this also might be safer in order to avoid injuries that occur on sharp edges.
In my own design, when my desk is folded up into the wall, I can use a long piece of board and bend it to create my folding instead of using components to connect my planks together. By using this method, it will make my design more interesting. Additionally, I will avoid using components which might decrease the price of the product and also avoid using components that might not function properly or rust, making my product more durable. However, without components, how will my desk be stable when it is unfolded? I am very fascinated by this technique and I would like to further explore the possibilities of implementing this in my own design.
Concluding, I did learn a lot from todays research and Marc's products made me think of different approaches and techniques I could use. Thinking about patterns or different colours, the material that I should use and what I should do to make my product stand out from the market. I will be researching more about Marc's work in the future as it is such an inspiration to me.
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Very good research that really looked at the products and consider these in relation o your own design - impressive
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