Chris Martin and Bono played a duet on a $1.6 million piano, Jenna and Barbara Bush worked the room, and a computer was sold for $977,000. Though Vanity Fair contends that Jony Ive and Marc Newson’s Sotheby’s auction on Saturday was “unlike the typical Sotheby’s auction,” it still sounds like pretty typical rich people stuff to us.
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What would you pay for a one-of-a-kind item designed by Jony Ive?
Folks who hung out at Sotheby’s design-centric auction this weekend, with around 50 items curated and designed (in some cases) by world-renowned designers Jony Ive and Marc Newson, spent upwards of $12 million.
The auction was part of Bono’s Project (Red), and proceeds will go to the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
But which items did better than expected?
Not surprisingly, the technology-related items went for more than expected.
For example, a (Red) version of the Mac Pro customized and selected by Jony Ive and made with red aluminium went for almost twenty times it’s expected selling price, at $977,000. Yes, almost one million dollars. For a computer that will be out of date in a couple years, when Apple unveils something even more stunning and powerful.
Meanwhile, a Leica camera designed and custom made by Jony Ive and Marc Newson sold for $1.8 million, despite its expected sale price of $500k to $750k. The specs, including a f2.0 aperture, a 50mm focal length, and an anodised aluminium shell, aren’t nearly impressive enough to warrant that price. But Ive and Newson’s personal inscription clearly is.
The auction also included a pair of Rose gold EarPods, customized by Ive and Newson, which sold for far more than expected. Estimated at a value of $20k to $50k, the snazzy headphones sold for $461k. The perfect complement to that gold iPhone 5s, am I right?
One of the priciest items in the auction was a special desk designed by Ive and Newson, which sold for $1,685,000. The desk is made from anodised aluminum, and will definitely catch the eye of an y design enthusiasit, but perhaps it’s most important attribute is the men who designed it.
It just goes to show how valuable Jony Ive’s design imprint is in the age of the iPhone. Just as the iPhone itself is a household name, Ive has become one of the few designers in the world with a recognizable name. Because of this, items specially designed and chosen by him.
Jony Ive creates objects that end up in the hands of hundreds of millions of people. But for his latest trick—a RED charity auction at Sotheby’s tomorrow afternoon—he and designer Marc Newson are offering up something else: The one-of-a-kind.
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Pentax is going to release “PENTAX K-01 Lens Kit White x Blue” on July 25, which is a special color model of their digital single-lens reflex camera “PENTAX K-01″ designed by a world-famous industrial designer Marc Newson.
For “PENTAX K-01 Lens Kit White x Blue”, he also designed the color and the accompanying thin fixed focal length lens “smc PENTAX-DA 40mmF2.8 XS”.
The regular models of “PENTAX K-01″ have been already discontinued in Japan.
PENTAX K-01
Size: 121 x 79 x 59 mm
Weight: 480 g
Image sensor: 23.7mm×15.7mm size CMOS (1.649 million pixels)
Effective pixels: 1.628 million pixels
Monitor: 3.0inch TFT color LCD (0.921 million dots)
smc PENTAX-DA 40mmF2.8 XS
Focal length: 40mm (Equivalent to 61mm in 35mm format)
Min Aperture: f22
Max Aperture: f2.8
Size: 62.9 x 9.2 mm
Weight: 52 g
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