Photo: Courtesy of Olivetti.
What happens when you pair two star designers and ask them to pick their all-time favorite products? You get a totally awesome, swoon-worthy list of things you definitely don't need, but also, quite possibly, can't live without. Jony Ives, Apple's head designer, and Marc Newson, of Project RED fame, teamed up for a forthcoming Sotheby's auction benefitting RED. The storied auction house gave the duo carte blanche to pick 40 products to be auctioned off. Of course, everything on the auction block is visually stunning (would you expect any less from two designers?).
But, the products are also overly luxurious, completely quirky, and just downright creative. Take, for example, a cylindrical customized MacBook Pro, or a desk made of 2,600 pounds of aluminum, expected to go for at least $500,000. No big deal. Sure, some of these things may seem extravagant, but just think about how much better life would be with an official cosmonaut suit worn on an actual Soviet space mission to wear at whim, or an elegant, bespoke pair of Christian Louboutins. The auction is expected to make total bank for Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, so if you're going to splurge, it may as well be for a great cause. (Wired)