Apple's Marc Newson Believes Automotive Design is Lacking Progress

[H2SO4]

The DB9 is a beautiful car but it's no supercar. Fairly slow, doesn't handle all that well, etc. Sounds great though.

Aston Martin are the worlds laziest designers. Their cars have looked almost identical for ages. Good looking yes, but Jeez have they no talent or imagination?
Also Newson and Ive are full of it if they think automotive design is lacking. Unlike a computer their are so many other things to consider when designing a car. It’s not easy at all, that idiot Newson may have been involved before but I’ll bet he didn’t spend too long considering heat expulsion, aerodynamics, build costs, repair costs etc.etc. His remit was I suspect to try and make it look good, (and he failed. Very Miserably indeed).

 

[Scottsoapbox]

I also think car designers are lazy. I picked up a 2016 Mazda6 a month ago and I do enjoy it. However, look at the rear ends of all many cars. They all look very similar. Just lazy.

And smartphones look so different from each other...

 

[CFreymarc]

Johnny, you have been in costumer electronics for most of your career. Automotive design is "the big leagues" compared to the work you have done.

While your reputation gives clout for your opinion, let's see some product design to back it up. If not, this is just anyones opinion over pints at the local pub.

Designing a single consumer item is child's play compare to developing an entire moving environment where you have a very tough job mixing aesthetics and functionality.

 

[justperry]

While Ive has owned several luxury vehicles ranging from Aston Martins and Fiats to Bentleys and Land Rovers.

Bold:

 

[Mactendo]

To his right was a silver phone with ugly plastic bands. "It is baffling, isn’t it? It’s just nothing, isn’t it? It’s just insipid.” He declined to name the model, muttering, “I don’t know, I don’t want to offend.” (iPhone 6.)

 

[Sonmi451]

He's right. Now let's see what he can come up with.

 

[Four oF NINE]

Are Apple designers so bored they're criticizing other industries? Perhaps they should focus on computers, phones, tablets and other tech products.

Get back to work!

 

[CFreymarc]

He's right. Now let's see what he can come up with.

Exactly. It is now put up or shut up time.

 

[navaira]

Show me a better looking lap top then Apples new MacBook.

Show me a laptop with more than one USB slot. Oh wait...

Going by this philosophy the Apple Car will only have one door, but it will be conveniently mounted underneath the car not to ruin the beautiful, beautiful curves.

 

[skellener]

I'd say Tesla is doing it right.

 

[imageWIS]

You mean died?

That's a form of leaving.

 

[Mactendo]

In Marc Newson I trust...or not.

Looks like a thing from Pixar movie.

 

[jasonklee]

Show me a better looking lap top then Apples new MacBook.

Boom. Beauty and brawn. Every nanometer is accounted for in this remarkable work of man-made design. The materials and the way they are carefully crafted and sculpted into sensuous yet masculine lines suggests a profound level of power and boldness. Which also allows me to experience great works of art like Diablo, Mass Effect, GTA V.

 

[cwt1nospam]

I guess we can't all drive $200K cars. Or spend $3,000 on a computer or $10,000 on a watch.

So you're saying that the average person makes plenty of money, but Apple's products are too expensive? This in light of 30+ years of flat or declining wages? That cheap car, PC, or watch that you want to buy can only be cheap because they're not paying their workers well and they're shifting costs (like cleanup: That spill in Colorado could only happen because a corporation left the waste there for tax payers to deal with.) to us.

 

[apolloa]

I don't think I have ever disagreed anymore with what some Apple designer has ever said! IMO he is totally and utterly absolutely flat out wrong!

 

[enzo thecat]

Doesn't Ive have anything better to do than do cheesy poses for magazines? Its getting so old. I'm embarrassed for him. What a tool.

 

[Jakexb]

Wow, talk about irony! Where's the Progress with Apple? a watch? Apple hasn't seen anything innovative since Steve Jobs left.

People have said that about every Apple product ever. Right on this forum. Go back and read the launches of iPod, iPhone, iPad, MacBook Air... they were all "dumb products". iPod wasn't anything special compared to a Nomad, iPhone was pointless, iPad was just an enormous iPhone, Macbook Air was too small and slow to be usable...

 

[apolloa]

The DB9 is a beautiful car but it's no supercar. Fairly slow, doesn't handle all that well, etc. Sounds great though.

It handles pretty well actually and is fast enough for a GT cruiser.

 

[cwt1nospam]

Boom. Beauty and brawn. Every nanometer is accounted for in this remarkable work of man-made design. The materials and the way they are carefully crafted and sculpted into sensuous yet masculine lines suggests a profound level of power and boldness. Which also allows me to experience great works of art like Diablo, Mass Effect, GTA V.

Nope. Try again.

What makes that hideous: Off centered track pad, stickers!, more room for the logo than the the camera, gratuitous lighting (keyboard, fine, but under and askew the track pad???), and finally, it's obviously too thick.

 

[e93to]

Pedestrian law ruined the modern car designs. Other than higher hood line and upright nose, I think the regulation is responsible for busy front end and bland rear design.

 

[MrGuder]

Yes car makers are behind and lacking progress but so is Apple... Releasing iPhones and iPad with only 16 Gb of space in 2014-2015 is really behind the times and so is releasing an iPhone with 500 mb to 1 gig of ram. So it cuts both ways.

 

[robgendreau]

OMG. You beat me to the punch. Newson, like everyone else, can have an opinion about car design. But when you design the Ford 021C, you don't have a lot of room to talk about design. Although from 1999, this thing looks like something a 6 year old drew with crayons. I personally think he's wrong about today's automotive design. There are numerous beautifully designed cars on the road today.

I dunno about beautiful production cars though. We could argue about Ferraris and whatnot, but what about stuff available in quantity?

And car design compared to computer/mobile design is a rather interesting exercise.

What Apple, for example, is like the VW bug? Porsche 911? original Mini? original Mustang (and even '69 )? Cars/computers were iconic, had a big impact, etc. The first Macs up through the SE? I don't think there are any standout Macs, nothing that's going be in the Goodwood Festival of [Computing] speed 50 years hence. Maybe the first iPod, or iPhone, but I dunno.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Wow, talk about irony! Where's the Progress with Apple? a watch? Apple hasn't seen anything innovative since Steve Jobs left.

You mean died?

First Steve Jobs left Apple and then he died. Was there any progress during that summer after he left Apple?

 

[budselectjr]

Ive has owned several luxury vehicles ranging from Aston Martins and Fiats to Bentleys and Land Rovers.

Two of those things are not like the others.

 

[MarcKerr]

I'm worried that Ive thinks a Bentley is a good looking car. The Apple Watch looks a lot like the Bentley and the original iPhone. They are in love with rounded corner rectangles. It's really not hard to imagine what an Apple Car might look like. The lines will all flow very nicely but it'll be ugly as can be. It will be an Apple Watch Just like that piece of crap Ford 021C but rounder.

Don't get me wrong, Apple computers are nicely designed and look decent but there's nothing special about the designs. Flat as possible rounded rectangles, that's all it is. They look good because every other computer manufacturer really does make complete crap from a design standpoint.