Marc Newson: Designing a Life Less Ordinary

Marc Newson has a knack of making everyday items look like prototypes.

Whether designing kitchen and bathroom accessories for Alessi, training shoes for Nike, mobile phones for KDDI or a concept car for Ford, the Australian-born designer's work has always carried the hallmarks of original thinking.

"The process is always the same, it doesn't really matter what the object is, whether it's a prototype or whether it's for production," Newson told CNN.

"It doesn't ever really change my methods or the way I do things, I always approach things in the same way, think about things in the same way, get inspired in the same way.

I'm fascinated with materials, with processes, with technologies."

Newson is also obsessed with air travel, a theme that has characterized his work since the aluminum Lockheed lounge chair that first brought him to prominence as a young designer in Sydney in 1986.

Last year the 41-year-old got to create his own full-size concept jet, the Kelvin40, for an exhibition at the Fondation Cartier in Paris.