14 DAY TRIAL // Apple credits all its current industrial designs to Jonathan Ive, but one particular product – that has yet to go on sale – is not the work of the revered Brit, according to someone who shares his passion for aesthetics.
Om Malik (of GigaOm) recently scored an interview with Brooklyn-based industrial designer Bradley Price, the founder of Autodromo, a maker of watches, sunglasses, and driving gloves. Price knows good design when he sees it, and he can recognize another designer’s signature.
Apple Watch is all Marc Newson
Asked what he thought of the Apple watch, Price responded without hesitation: “It’s beautiful. As someone who designs consumer electronics and watches, the more I looked at it the more impressed I was. It’s got Marc Newson’s fingerprints all over it.” Newson was hired at Apple this year, but the news broke out mere days before the Apple Watch was unveiled.
He continued, saying, “It’s clearly something he designed rather than Jony Ive. It’s funny they announced he was working with them after the watch. But to me that was the Apple way of underhandedly giving him credit for the design without actually saying he designed it. But it seemed to me very Marc Newson.”
Indeed, the Apple Watch does seem a bit out of place when you line it up with other Apple products. It’s a lot more rounded, uses new materials (or at least materials that are not too commonly used by Apple), and it’s altogether something else than the iPod nano design we used to perceive as the basis of the upcoming iWatch.
But what if that’s exactly where the problem lies? What if Price, like everyone else, expected the Apple watch to be more in line with existing Apple products? Simply because this apple seemingly fell farther from the tree doesn’t mean it’s someone else’s design.
Ive and Newson are partners
Let’s not forget that Ive has never made a secret of his common ground with Newson as well as with other designers who inspire him. He once called Newson “one of the most influential designers of this generation,” which can be considered an admission that he looks at his work carefully.
The two designers are known to be friends, and they’ve even collaborated on projects, including a Leica point-and-shooter for the (RED) foundation.
Ive has also openly admitted that he has been influenced by the works of other iconic designers, including Dieter Rams. However, it would be shameful for Apple to confirm that Marc Newson indeed put more work into the Apple Watch than Jony Ive did. If that’s true, then why wasn’t Newson in that Vanity Fair interview?
