Marc Newson Essay

Marc Newson is an Australian designer who was born in Sydney in 1963. His work has been on display in many museums across the globe including the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and MoMA in New York. In 1994 he partnered with a Swiss businessman Oliver Ike and they started a watch company Ikepod that later became some of the world’s most exclusive watches in the world. In 2006 he was given the job of Creative Director at the Australian company Qantas.

Giorgio Armani is an Italian designer who was born in 1934. He left medical school to pursue a career in fashion designing. In 1975 he opened Armani with his business partner Sergio Galeotti. He was chosen as the Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2002.

In 2007 he broadcasted his live haute couture fashion show on the Internet. He was the first every clothing designer to do this. Armani’s work was shown in the Guggenheim Museum in New York City in 2000 to 2001. He is also the patron of the Sydney Theatre Company.

Marc Newson studied at the Sydney College of Arts and graduate with a degree in jewellery and sculpture in 1984.

In 1957 Giorgio Armani started a job for an Italian department store (La Rinascente) and was in charge of purchasing the clothes that would feature in the store. In 1964 he began his career as a fashion designer. He trained in Nino Cerruti’s (an Italian businessman and stylist) studio.

The year after Marc Newson graduated from the Sydney College of Arts, he won a grant from the Crafts Board of the Australia Council. Using this grant he produced his most well known design piece the Lockheed Lounge (1986). The Lockheed lounge was made from aluminium and fibreglass. Marc Newson mostly designs one of kind piece household goods, furniture and interior spaces using materials which are not commonly used. As an industrial designer he has a wide variety of what he designs which includes, watches, lounges, shoes, cars and more. In his job as the Creative Director at Qantas he designed first class lounges at the Sydney and Melbourne international airports.

Giorgio Armani started off designing clothes for men and women.

He designs elegant eveningwear. Armani now design shoes, bags, belts, sunglasses, leather goods, beauty products (makeup and face care products), perfumes, jeans and still clothes. In 2006 he designed the outfits the Italian flag bearers wore at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. He also designed the sporting uniforms for England’s Chelsea Soccer Club and Australia’s Rabbitohs. Armani joined with Samsung in 2007 to make a luxury LCD television and a mobile phone to expand on his consumer lifestyle line.

Marc Newson’s target market would be the many companies that he designs for and some of the most well known would be, Nike, Dom Perignon, Gap, Motorola, Shiseido, Yves Saint Lauren (YSL), and Qantas among many other brands.

Giorgio Armani’s target market is kids, women and men. They would have to be quite wealthy as the products sold are expensive to buy compared to other brands. Giorgio Armani has 500 exclusive retail stores in 46 different countries worldwide. Instead of following the latest trends, he creates them

“I think traveling does (influence), a lot. I think it’s very important for designers to expose themselves to different cultures. Design is a very international business and there’s no way I can work in just one country.” - Marc Newson

Travelling around the world and the different things he sees impacts his pieces and gives him inspiration. He also is inspired from new technologies, materials and process he

discovers.

“Art is an obvious inspiration, so I try and see as many exhibitions and museums as possible. I usually work according to my intuition ... but like many creative people, I cannot describe the process of creation. All I know is, I have a very clear vision of what I like and want to achieve. And although ideas may come spontaneously, I am nonetheless disciplined in my work ethic and in the way I approach my daily routine." - Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani gets inspiration from other artist’s work and different exhibitions and museums he has seen.

Marc Newson uses design as an experimental exercise. During the design process he explores different materials, processes and skills. He designs pieces, which cross between art and design. He is given a brief from the client he is designing for. He then conducts regular meetings with the client to keep the informed about time, research, strategy and the design.

Giorgio Armani meets with small groups of associates, which help him design his pieces. They discuss themes and ideas and work closely together. They sometimes go to his house in Broni, Italy because it gives them peace and solitude to work in. Armani believes that subtlety and simplicity is key in any piece of clothing.

Marc Newson doesn’t really look at the environmental impacts of the materials he uses but tries to use materials that are very durable and last long periods of times.

Armani does not test their products on animals. They don’t use other people to test their products on animals either. They test products using other methods such as reconstructed skin models. They strive to manufacture products responsibly and with ethical labour practices and environmental control. They don’t discriminate on race, gender, religion or sexual orientation. They treat employees fairly with wages and working conditions. They don’t violate legal or moral rights of employees. They don’t tolerate the employment of workers who are under the legal age or are forced to do labour. The company does not affiliate itself with any companies who go against this.

Marc Newson has travelled around the world designing products in quite a few different countries these are; Japan, Australia, America, France, Italy, Finland and Britain.

Giorgio Armani has worked for companies in Italy, Australia and England and has had museum displays in America. As well as having exclusive stores around the world.

Armani would hire upcoming designers who he thinks have an eye for design and get them on-board and designing for Armani.

Marc Newson likes the Japanese culture and likes the ancient and modern designing.
Armani has been in the fashion industry for forty years but still plans on continuing to oversee the business for at least another few years or even ten. With no heir to the fortune or the business Armani hasn’t made any plans for what to do with the business in the future but has considered the stock market or selling to a larger company.

Marc Newson and Giorgio Armani aren’t that similar in their designing because Armani is a larger and better-known brand he employs other people to help design pieces, unlike Newson. Both of their careers have driven them to explore the world and their careers are both ones each designer enjoys and are passionate about.