One-of-a-Kind Products Designed by Jony Ive and Designer Marc Newson Sold Off at (RED) Auction

[kylepro88]

What in the world are some of you whining about? Go make your own damn money and donate yourself then, and quit lobbing bombs at those who are spending it on a good cause. Even if some of these people are douchebags (which some are judging based purely on their wealth), some of you speak as if you're immune to such behavior, or definitely would be if you had what some rich folks do.

If in some hypothetical context a jerk wants to donate almost $1,000,000 to charity to impress his friends then I invite him to impress his friends more often…kids without nets to prevent Malaria are better off that he continue in his douchebaggery then otherwise. Think of the people who will benefit from auctions like this… /rant

BTW, I'm not speaking to those who think these aren't re-designed products, just those who are all sour about the money side of things...

 

[dec.]

I was surprised to see the high amounts that the auctions reached.

Other than that, I think it's a good thing. Sure, you can argue that the system itself with the unbalanced distribution of wealth is not the most humane but as long as it is established (and who's exactly is going to change it - when and how?), charities like these are important.

 

[proline]

Fantastic project and fantastic outcome, but...
How is slapping red paint on Mac Pro makes it different, redesign? I don't think so. How long did it take to do it (design it)? 5 seconds? Maybe the red paint is "magical"... If Johnny made it square or something, I could understand, but all of theses products are identical to the original + new paint job...
Woopy doo...

Some of the products are new and some are merely modified. However, the goal isn't to make something that will change the world, it's more of a thank you to those who donated significant amounts of money to the cause. As for the Mac Pro, you have no idea how much or how little effort went into getting the color right. The machine will also go down in history as the first Mac Pro of its type sold, so it should be worth something for a long time to come.

 

[Rogifan]

Fantastic project and fantastic outcome, but...
How is slapping red paint on Mac Pro makes it different, redesign? I don't think so. How long did it take to do it (design it)? 5 seconds? If Johnny made it square or something, I could understand, but all of theses products are identical to the original + new paint job...
Woopy doo...

Clearly Ive was involved in the design of the Mac Pro. And he says Apple is only making one red version. That makes it a custom design. Do you honestly think Apple would have allowed him to build a completely different Mac Pro just for this event? Someone spent almost a million dollars on this "paint job" which is all that matters at the end of the day. Not some silly semantics over the meaning of the word "design".

 

[MacVista]

Wow they really blew past all the estimates!

Disgusting that people can moan about a load of money going to charity.

Charity is great, but this is not all after-tax money.
~$500,000 Tax dollars that should have gone to the IRS now is headed to some charity, regardless of how worthy that cause may be.

----------

This is by far one of the most interesting threads in MR.

 

[joepunk]

That would be cool, not quite sure where id put it tho!

I'd wear it for Halloween of course. I would probably store it in a trunk of some kind. The trunk has to look like it too came from Space.

 

[dazed]

Love the mac and the camera, but seriously that table looks like it's from ikea.

 

[groovyd]

meh

am i the only one who thinks there is absolutely nothing special about that table, nor the camera.

 

[pacalis]

Charity is great, but this is not all after-tax money.
~$500,000 Tax dollars that should have gone to the IRS now is headed to some charity, regardless of how worthy that cause may be.

----------

This is by far one of the most interesting threads in MR.

Slow down there and lets look at the whole equation.

It takes $1,000,000 going to the Red charity for every $300,000 going to the IRS. So you're getting 3x the social benefit.

The alternative is $300,000K to the IRS and some rich persons wealth goes up by $700,000 more, creating MORE income disparity, MORE AIDS, MORE TB, and MORE MALARIA.

Ya, tough call.

And good on Ive. Just because Apple isn't known for it's charity, doesn't mean charity is bad.

 

[mikegoldnj]

It's great that a charity is getting some needed funds but as for these "designers," what exactly did they design?

They took a Mac Pro and made it a different color, took an existing design of apple ear buds and crafted them in gold, etc.

I don't think that counts as "designing."

 

[Kissaragi]

It's great that a charity is getting some needed funds but as for these "designers," what exactly did they design?

They took a Mac Pro and made it a different color, took an existing design of apple ear buds and crafted them in gold, etc.

I don't think that counts as "designing."

By all means, if you can find a better word than designed, then go ahead.

 

[Dave-Z]

Not at all. It's absolutely true. Enslaving the working class and looting the world's natural resources to become obscenely wealthy is disgusting. Tossing a few coins back at charity auctions does not absolve the injustice.

You realize that the poorest person in the Western world is vastly richer than most other people, right? A middle class person in USA, Canada, etc. is in the 85-percentile for world income and is a consumer of about 75% of the world's resources.

Pot, meet kettle.

 

[mikegoldnj]

By all means, if you can find a better word than designed, then go ahead.

Yeah....coloring.

 

[proline]

MacRumors members never fail to be negative. What's wrong with you people? Don't be mad be glad! (Before I get happy people mad I should make it clear that not all of you are pessimists here some of you are capable of generating a smile)

Yeah, the negative tone of these forums is rather pathetic. I'm not really sure what's with all the hate. This story is about somebody putting a few things together in his spare time and selling them to raise money for charity. There's really nothing more to it than that. How someone can turn that into something to get mad/bitter/jealous about is beyond me.

 

[bmk]

Only the stupendously wealthy can afford to spend cash like this to buy one-off trinkets to impress their friends.
Good cause? Call me cynical, but isn't it the greed of the stupendously wealthy that causes the uneven distribution of wealth that leads to poverty and hardship in poorer parts of the world (devastation of rain forests for cattle raising, abuse of workers for cheap electronic manufacturing, private ownership of freshwater supplies etc).
The 'saintly' folk who bought these goods will no doubt get a massive tax break on these charitable purchases, and alleviate any guilty feelings (if they are indeed capable of such an emotion) connected with the origins of their income.

This.
No more needs to be said (except maybe 'kill the rich')

 

[Kissaragi]

Yeah....coloring.

The earbuds are solid gold, not coloured, the internal structure of the earbuds would haver had to have been redesigned slightly. The desk is built from scratch, as is the camera.

So coloured could only possibly fit the mac pro and to me, the word coloured would imply that he did the anodising himself, not a team of engineers. He also had to do some deciding on what would be red on the machine so coloured doesn't fully fit without other words as well.

Designed is the simplest, most accurate way to describe the creation of all the items. Sure there wasn't much designing involved in the mac pro but who cares? It raised a ****** load of money for charity.

 

[Rajani Isa]

Wow. $16m in one year vs. $65m in 7 years. The 1% really are the source of all things good.

Those donations are tax deductible and the combined federal, state, city, tax rate in NYC is around 65%. Makes perfect sense.

Are they tax deductible? They are buying items - regardless of where the profit goes - not donating directly.

 

[Rogifan]

It's great that a charity is getting some needed funds but as for these "designers," what exactly did they design?

They took a Mac Pro and made it a different color, took an existing design of apple ear buds and crafted them in gold, etc.

I don't think that counts as "designing."

This was never advertised as 40 original designs by Ive and Newson. In fact the designers were quite clear that most pieces were existing things they liked and would want to own themselves. Who cares whether they designed something from scratch or not? It was basically a side project that raised a lot of money for charity.

 

[atlatnesiti]

Clearly Ive was involved in the design of the Mac Pro. And he says Apple is only making one red version. That makes it a custom design. Do you honestly think Apple would have allowed him to build a completely different Mac Pro just for this event? Someone spent almost a million dollars on this "paint job" which is all that matters at the end of the day. Not some silly semantics over the meaning of the word "design".

Red paint doesn't make it a new design that everybody is wanking about and yes, I think that Apple wouldn't allow for totally new design for this important charity...

 

[Jiten]

Unsolicited suggestion to all the Negative Nancies here, you'd do better to help your cause if you criticize the actual bad things rich people do, not the good things.

 

[captain kaos]

Its for a good cause, but the money floating around to spend over a million $ for a leica camera is ridiculous.

 

[Jiten]

You realize that the poorest person in the Western world is vastly richer than most other people, right? A middle class person in USA, Canada, etc. is in the 85-percentile for world income and is a consumer of about 75% of the world's resources.

Pot, meet kettle.

Agreed. Been to Tacloban 3 days ago to see the poorest of poor ravaged by Typhoon Haiyan. A lot of folks there would kill to be in the position of a lower income family in the US.

 

[Rogifan]

The earbuds are solid gold, not coloured, the internal structure of the earbuds would haver had to have been redesigned slightly. The desk is built from scratch, as is the camera.

So coloured could only possibly fit the mac pro and to me, the word coloured would imply that he did the anodising himself, not a team of engineers. He also had to do some deciding on what would be red on the machine so coloured doesn't fully fit without other words as well.

Designed is the simplest, most accurate way to describe the creation of all the items. Sure there wasn't much designing involved in the mac pro but who cares? It raised a ****** load of money for charity.

This obsession over what was designed (however you define the word) is stupid. With the Moto X, Google has a whole campaign around the tag line "designed by you". But basically all people can "design" is the color of the case. According to some people's narrow definition of the word "design" this would be false advertising by Google then, right? It's just silly.

 

[ChrisTX]

All of the affluent people I know are down to earth, and very charitable. I guess you can't win either way!

 

[Rogifan]

Red paint doesn't make it a new design that everybody is wanking about and yes, I think that Apple wouldn't allow for totally new design for this important charity...

So some people think a Mac Pro anodized red is cool. So what? And the Mac Pro IS a new design (it hasn't even gone on sale yet for gods sake) so yeah a red Mac Pro qualifies as a new design. Unless you want to argue tha Ive had zero involvement in the actual design of the Mac Pro.....but that seems highly unlikely.