Interview

BRANT: The concept of design at that time was so important in Italy, in terms of what it stood for culturally, even politically.

NEWSON: Absolutely. There were crazy people—like Carlo Mollino, who was sort of designing everything from cars to planes. I was inspired by the Italians’ ability to touch so many different areas.

BRANT: You just picked my favorite designer. He was very interested in women as well. [both laugh] Especially photographed nude while sitting on his chairs.

NEWSON: Yeah, he was really interested in women, wasn’t he?

BRANT: I’d like to hear a little bit about your process. I’m sure you work a lot in solitude and design for yourself, but you also work for large corporations and you run a big design firm.

NEWSON: I have to confess that I’m in a constant state of evolution in terms of the way I feel about it. When I was doing early pieces, like the Lockheed Lounge, I wasn’t exactly in love with the idea of building the stuff. I could do it because I had the skills, but I really did it because I couldn’t find anyone else to build it for me. My dream at that moment was to be able to work with a big company, preferably an Italian one, like the Cappellinis or Alessis of the world. I thought that was the ultimate. Of course, soon enough I did end up working for those people and quickly discovered it wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be. First, they are much smaller companies than you imagine. And, second, they never make things the way you wanted them to be made; they are always second-guessing—being Italians they always thought they knew better. And, third, you never got paid! A project like that is great for your reputation and it looks good on your CV, but the reality doesn’t stack up. So then I was thinking, Go work with the big multinationals, these giant companies. I ended up getting jobs with companies like Ford, Nike, Samsonite, American Standard—the big bathroom company—and a whole host of other blue-chip companies. But that’s about as difficult as you can possibly get because the decision-making process in those huge companies is crippling. It’s like hitting your head against a brick wall . . . So you end up looking for companies that aren’t too big and aren’t too small. I’m doing a lot of products for this wonderful little kitchen company called SMEG. There’s the Atmos Clock that I designed for Jaeger-LeCoultre. You know, I don’t have the same financial problems as I did before. I have financial freedom now, and I end up doing what I want. So, in a weird way, I’ve come full circle. Working with Larry [Gagosian] and Didier is like making things for myself again. I’m having fun, the way I used to.

BRANT: I went to your opening at the Gagosian Gallery in January 2007, and I thought that whole presentation was incredible. There was so much electricity that evening and so many people really eager to see your range of designs—from furniture to surfboards! It was wonderful to see how Larry can give an artist freedom.

NEWSON: That’s the wonderful luxury for people like me. You don’t get that luxury when you’re working with big corporations. They have huge marketing machines with focus groups and market research—everything, in a sense, conspiring against you.

BRANT: Working with a gallery is much more entrepreneurial.

NEWSON: It allows for more freedom and more excellence. It’s the only way that I truly have the opportunity to express myself without being held back in any way.

BRANT: I think what is extraordinary about how much excitement there is for you as a younger designer is that it really grows to bolster other young designers. Because of your work and what you’ve managed to do in the design field, so many more designers are getting attention and so many art collectors have started to include design. That’s got to make you feel good.

NEWSON: A lot of the time I can’t see the woods for the trees. I’m so immersed in my little world that I don’t often sit back and pay attention to what’s going on around me. It truly stuns me when people recognize me. Obviously, I’m not a film star, but even at a design exhibition or art exhibition, if someone comes up to me, I’m sort of taken aback. I don’t think of myself like that. But if I can have an effect on young designers, that’s great—particularly young designers coming from Australia. Europeans grew up with design. The rest of us lived on tidbits of information.