Dezeen Wire: Australian industrial designer Marc Newson has been announced as the recipient of the Lucky Strike Designer Award 2011, which includes a prize of €50,000.

Marc Newson: portrait by Romeo Balancout

A statement from the expert jury explaining the decision said that Newson "managed to unite efficient lifestyle product design and pioneering concept ideas, as well as prototypes which have been recognised worldwide as a total work of art, in his creative works."

The annual award is sponsored by the Raymond Loewy Foundation and is presented "in recognition of the life work of outstanding, internationally successful designers."

Newson will receive the award this evening at the stilwerk design centre in Hamburg.

Previous recipients include Paola Antonelli (2010), Dieter Rams (2007), John Maeda (2005), Philippe Starck (2004), Ingo Maurer (2000) and Richard Sapper (1992).

The following information is from the Raymond Loewy Foundation:

Lucky Strike Designer Award 2011 for Marc Newson – Cosmopolite of design

The Lucky Strike Designer Award, one of the most important designer awards worldwide, offering a prize of 50,000 euros, goes this year to Australian Marc Newson, one of the most influential designers of his generation.

With Marc Newson, the Raymond Loewy Foundation – established in 1991 by British American Tobacco in Hamburg – is honouring “the very successful and globally active all-round designer for industrial products and goods for everyday life”, states the jury for the Foundation. Marc Newson will be presented with the Lucky Strike Designer Award on 27 October at stilwerk in Hamburg.

Born in 1963 in Sydney, Australia, Newson spent his childhood travelling in Europe and Asia, before studying jewellery and sculpture at Sydney College of the Arts (SCA).  He started experimenting with furniture design as a student and, after graduating in 1984, was awarded a grant from the Australian Crafts Council, following which he organised an exhibition – featuring his legendary Lockheed Lounge – at the Roslyn Oxley Gallery in Sydney. The futuristic lounge chair, an icon of contemporary design, acquired additional fame in Madonna’s music video “Rain”.

After working and living in Tokyo and Paris, Newson moved on to London in 1997, where he founded Marc Newson Ltd. He designed industrially manufactured glass items for littala, kitchen and bath accessories for Alessi as well as furniture, lighting and household objects for Magis, B&B Italia, Idée and Dupont Corian. In addition, he designed vehicles, such as the MN01 motorbike for the Danish manufacturer Biomega and the 021C concept car for Ford, as well as the interior outfitting of a Falcon 900B private jet. Newson also designed the uniforms for the Australian Olympic Games team in 2004 in Athens, Greece, the Zvezdochka shoe for Nike and fashion collection for G-Star as well as the Scope luggage series for Samsonite. In 2006, Newson took over the position of Creative Director at Qantas Airways and continued to work on the development of the interior design for the A380 as well as the airport lounges in Sydney and Melbourne.

Newson’s work has not only been honoured with numerous awards – including six Good Design Awards from Chicago Atheneum – it has also been displayed in various exhibitions. His pieces are present in most major permanent museum collections – for example at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the London Design Museum, the Musée d’Art Moderne – Centre Georges Pompidou as well as at the Vitra Design Museum. Marc Newson is an exceptional professor for design at Sydney College of the Arts and Hong Kong Polytechnic University. In the United Kingdom, he has been appointed “Royal Designer for Industry”.

With Marc Newson as winner of the Lucky Strike Designer Award 2011, the jury is following the tradition of the Raymond Loewy Foundation of highlighting the broad spectrum of design – the creation of things, both in terms of their content and formally – in its entirety and of bringing public awareness to it.

The design centre stilwerk in Hamburg is the exclusive partner of the Lucky Strike Designer and the Lucky Strike Junior Designer Awards 2011. As a platform for interior furnishings, design and lifestyle – with 28 premium shops at a single source – and since its opening in 1996, stilwerk has made a name for itself that goes beyond Hamburg’s borders. Today, stilwerk manages further branches in Berlin, Dusseldorf and Vienna.

Raymond Loewy Foundation: background

The Raymond Loewy Foundation makes a substantial contribution to the promotion of good design, and to highlighting the great importance of design for the development of the economy and of society in general. The Foundation was set up in Hamburg in 1991, and supports pioneering and professional design in the spirit of the great American designer Raymond Loewy (1893-1986).

Previous winners of the Lucky Strike Designer Award include Stefan Sagmeister (2009), Ken Adam (2008), Dieter Rams (2007), Ferran Adrià (2006), Philippe Starck (2004), Michael Ballhaus (2001), Donna Karan (1999), Peter Lindbergh (1996) and Karl Lagerfeld (1993).

Raymond Loewy Foundation: the committee

Prof. Werner Aisslinger (studio aisslinger)

Michael Ballhaus (Director of Photography; winner of the 2001 Lucky Strike Designer Award)

Prof. Wolfgang Laubersheimer (Cologne International School of Design, Department of Production Technologies)

Jürgen Plüss (Brand Consultant, Gütersloh)

Raymond Loewy Foundation: the jury

Head of the jury:

Prof. Johann H. Tomforde (Competence & Design-Center for Mobility-Innovations, Böblingen)

Members of the jury:

Prof. Werner Aisslinger (studio aisslinger)

Nils Jockel (Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg)

Prof. Wolfgang Laubersheimer (Cologne International School of Design, Department of Production Technologies)

Jürgen Plüss (Brand Consultant, Gütersloh)

Prof. Joachim Sauter (Universität der Künste Berlin – Digital Media Design; ART+COM, Berlin)

Dr. Angela Schönberger (formerly Director of Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin)

Jury Statement:

The jury of the Raymond Loewy Foundation has chosen to honour the Lucky Strike Designer Award 2011 to Marc Newson, a very successful and globally active all-round designer for industrial products and goods for everyday life.

The cosmopolite Marc Newson has managed to unite efficient lifestyle product design and pioneering concept ideas, as well as prototypes which have been recognised worldwide as a total work of art, in his creative works.

Marc Newson has set an innovative course in furniture and home interior design using combinations of materials which are characterised by their purist elegance and practical textures. In the realm of transportation design, Marc Newson has created a buzz with the compact car concept 021C for Ford in the USA, private jet interiors, carbon racing bikes, the ASTRIUM space shuttle for EADS, with the yacht brand RIVA, and Airbus A 380 interiors for Qantas Airways, where he has worked as Creative Director for many years. Also in the area of interior design for restaurants and hotels, in product design for objects of everyday use, and in sportswear design, Marc Newson has provided new impulses again and again with a “design DNA” that has become his trademark.

The 47-year-old Australian has become one of the most highly remunerated creative designers – due to his unique design and communication style as well as the branding of his design.

The designer Marc Newson encourages many young talents to break free from monotonous product design with their own strategies and concepts.

His exemplary achievements – also serving as a model for a new generation of cosmopolitan- and multi-cultural-minded designers – were decisive factors for the jury to honour Marc Newson with the Lucky Strike Designer Award 2011.

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