World renowned industrial designer Marc Newson started his career by convincing his jewellery and silversmithing tutors to go along with his final year project. It wasn’t a necklace, it wasn’t a brooch, in fact, it had nothing to do with jewellery. It was a chair.

“I managed to persuade my tutors that it was similar to jewellery because it is worn close to the body,” he explains to Neos Kosmos. Unbeknownst to him, that interest in furniture would catapult him into the world class designer he is today.

Born in Sydney, Newson, 45, can trace back his interest in designing to his childhood. Born into a multicultural family, his Greek grandfather provided the perfect place for a young Newson to start playing and designing with different materials. “My grandfather had a garage and I spent a lot of time in there hanging out with him and tinkering with his tools.

I used to make things with wheels, billy carts, from bits of wood and stuff lying around,” he says. His grandfather would witness Newson taking things apart, learning how they worked, and putting them back together, all the while trying to find ways to improve them. Those early signs showed just what an industrial designer he would become. One that doesn’t hate the constraints of trying to make something practical yet beautiful at the same time. “It actually helps to have limitations – to have a brief to stick to.

In a way I can become more creative and problem solving,” he says. He hasn’t been lazy either. Finding early success with his furniture line, Newson never settled for just designing furniture. In a career spanning over 25 years, Newson has put his name to everything from household objects to cars, aircraft, yachts and buildings. Now based in London, he has had the honour of working with famous companies like Apple, Yves San Laurent, G-star, Maybelline, Nike and is currently the Qantas Creative Director.

You may have seen his work in the A380: all the new interiors including the colourful seats are designed by his hand. And all of these opportunities might not have come about if Newson kept to his jewellery beginnings. In the late 1980s his chairs shone as truly fashionable pieces of art, giving the under-appreciated decade the stylistic class it needed. The Lockheed Lounge Chair he designed for his first exhibition in 1986, fresh out of university, was his game changer. Now the polished metal chair with three legs has been so sought after (only 10 were made) one recently sold at auction for $1.5 million.

His Embryo Chair, made two years after the Lockheed, has been just as popular and sells for thousands. In fact, Newton has three consecutive world records set at auction. The weirdly shaped chairs have defined him. It’s a testament to his character that with more than 20 years of interest in his chairs, he hasn’t become bitter over them. Asking him if he still likes the chairs and if he would change anything about them now, he says no. “They have a life of their own now – so I wouldn’t change a thing,” he says.

For his hundreds of his designs, he’s brought fame and increased sales to his collaborators. Along with hundreds of design awards, the Newson designed Qantas First Class Lounge has won the Sytrax World Airline award for the best first class lounge. His name brings a big boost of popularity and success for every company he works with. With so many designs under his belt, asking him what his favourite one is a hard question to answer. “Whatever I am currently working on tends to be my favourite. But overall – I have a particular fondness for the 021C concept car I designed for Ford back in 1999, and designing the complete interiors of the Qantas A380 fleet has been amazing.” On the horizon, Newton will continue to work on his current projects, but is tight lipped on some.

He explains there is “ongoing work with Qantas and G-Star, a major project with the American company, Knoll, a fountain pen for Hermes, a major exhibition of my work opening in Philadelphia, but frankly, most of the current projects are confidential – and I can’t even tell you what they are.” With so much on his plate, it’s hard to see when the designer has any time to catch his breath. For the meantime, he has his holiday house in Ithaca. For more information on Marc Newson’s designs visit www.marc-newson.com/