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Marc Newson to Join Apple’s Design Team

25 points| stephenc_c_ | 11 years ago |vanityfair.com

24 comments

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[+] state|11 years ago|reply
It's really difficult for me to see Newson's work as anything but very, very anachronistic. His formal language seems to me to be hopelessly trapped in the 90s.

That being said, his range is impressive. He's capable of working in many different scales and materials. Beside the fact that he's a friend of Ive's, this seems like the best argument for him being a good fit at Apple.

[+] wdewind|11 years ago|reply
> It's really difficult for me to see Newson's work as anything but very, very anachronistic. His formal language seems to me to be hopelessly trapped in the 90s.

I could not agree more. Newson is someone I really want to like because he seems like a cool guy, but I've just never been very impressed with either his work or how he talks about it.

He's most famous for this: http://static0.bornrichimages.com/wp-content/uploads/s3/imag...

Which I find to be a cool idea, but:

a) not very functional b) not very aesthetically pleasing in execution

A lot of that is just my taste, but I did not expect to see the top voted comment here be something I so thoroughly agreed with.

[+] aaronbrethorst|11 years ago|reply
> His formal language seems to me to be hopelessly trapped in the 90s.

Can you elaborate on this?

[+] johansch|11 years ago|reply
I guess this is a sign of Apple moving more into fashion.
[+] threeseed|11 years ago|reply
Marc Newson is an outstanding product designer and also happens to be a good friend of Ive's.

I know Apple has made some fashion specific hires in the past but I don't think this is one of them.

[+] capkutay|11 years ago|reply
This along with signing the CEO of Burberry and Yves Saint Laurent. Clearly, they're not trying to win the battle for best tech gadget which Samsung and others have flung themselves into in an attempt to beat Apple products.

I'm guessing things like the iWatch, phones, and tables will be fashionable, high margin products built to

1) be easy to use 2) look very good and stylish

rather than have the most features...

[+] dewitt|11 years ago|reply
If I were running Apple, I'd be more worried about becoming great at online services (cloud, auth, security, identity) rather than doubling down on their expertise in fashion and user interface.

This is probably just some poorly timed high-profile acquisitions (Beats) and hires (Dre, Iovine, Ahrendts, Newson), though. I'm sure this occurs to them as well...

[+] WoodenChair|11 years ago|reply
Design is much more than "fashion" and "user interface." Then again people who don't appreciate design tend to be down on Apple more generally...
[+] serve_yay|11 years ago|reply
Companies "worry" about lots of things at once, especially the ones as big as Apple.
[+] threeseed|11 years ago|reply
And that's why you're effectively a nobody and most of the Apple execs are considered leaders in the field.

Pretty sure focusing on strengthening their music talent (given how important it is to the iEcosystem) is far more important than worrying about cloud identity.