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Daily Inspiration Quote by Marc Newson

"Then I started to do furniture and interiors for a friend, and just to get stuff in a magazine, and then slowly started to build up, and started to doing exhibitions"

About this Quote

Marc Newson’s sentence has the offhand rhythm of a career origin story told by someone who knows exactly how unglamorous “overnight success” looks up close. The repeated “started” and the casual “just” aren’t stylistic accidents; they’re a kind of defensive modesty, a way to frame ambition as momentum rather than a master plan. He’s describing a ladder built from opportunism: a friend’s project, a magazine placement, then exhibitions. Each rung is less about pure artistic revelation and more about access, visibility, and proof.

The revealing phrase is “just to get stuff in a magazine.” Newson admits the quiet truth of design culture: objects don’t become influential solely by being good; they become legible through platforms that confer taste. Magazines function as gatekeepers and accelerants, turning private work into public credibility. In that world, an “interior for a friend” isn’t merely a favor, it’s a prototype for a portfolio and a social passport into an ecosystem of editors, clients, and curators.

There’s also a subtle reframing of exhibitions. They arrive “slowly,” almost as an aftereffect, suggesting that the gallery circuit isn’t the starting point for many designers but the legitimizing endpoint once commercial and editorial validation have done their job. Newson’s intent reads as practical, even slightly disenchanted: the path is iterative, networked, and media-aware. The subtext is bracingly contemporary - creative work is inseparable from the systems that distribute attention.

Quote Details

TopicCareer
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Newson, Marc. (2026, February 17). Then I started to do furniture and interiors for a friend, and just to get stuff in a magazine, and then slowly started to build up, and started to doing exhibitions. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/then-i-started-to-do-furniture-and-interiors-for-114882/

Chicago Style
Newson, Marc. "Then I started to do furniture and interiors for a friend, and just to get stuff in a magazine, and then slowly started to build up, and started to doing exhibitions." FixQuotes. February 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/then-i-started-to-do-furniture-and-interiors-for-114882/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Then I started to do furniture and interiors for a friend, and just to get stuff in a magazine, and then slowly started to build up, and started to doing exhibitions." FixQuotes, 17 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/then-i-started-to-do-furniture-and-interiors-for-114882/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Marc Newson (born October 20, 1963) is a Designer from Australia.

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