Love Quote by Marc Newson

There’s a sly provocation tucked inside Marc Newson’s wish to be asked to do “ordinary things”: it’s a quiet indictment of how design celebrity works. Newson is the guy brands call when they want an object to look inevitable and expensive at the same time. So when he says he’d “love” more ordinary commissions, he’s not humblebragging about versatility; he’s pointing at the narrow pipeline that turns designers into luxury signifiers.

The key word is approached. It implies gatekeeping and demand. Ordinary life is full of design problems, but most of those problems don’t come with patrons, press releases, or a museum-ready narrative. Newson’s career has often been about the rarefied end of the spectrum - limited editions, iconic silhouettes, objects that circulate as cultural capital. Wanting “ordinary things” reads like a longing to rejoin the messy, unglamorous public sphere where design is judged by friction: does the chair stack, does the kettle pour, does the interface confuse your dad?

Subtextually, he’s also defending the idea that “ordinary” is not a downgrade. In a world where designers are rewarded for spectacle, the ordinary becomes radical: restraint, accessibility, durability, repairability. Newson’s line works because it flips the status logic. The real flex isn’t designing a trophy object; it’s being trusted to touch the stuff people actually live with, where failure is immediate and success is invisible.