16
J
ETHOS
JONATHAN WARD, founder and CEO of Icon,
is curious to a fault. The 49-year-old incessantly asks
questions to better understand his grossly disparate
fascinations, and his offbeat, witty personality influences
the design and funk of every Icon built. For the past 12
years, Icon has thoughtfully and artfully modernized
classic cars and trucks. Each is meticulously finished
with unconventional materials like LEDs from fighter
jets because Ward enjoys researching new restoration
techniqies and sourcing products such as textiles and
fabrics from atypical suppliers.
“I’m either dumb enough or audacious enough that I just
figure it out,” Ward says of his approach to customization.
He appreciates tradition but doesn’t follow it blindly, salvag-
ing what’s worth saving and improving what’s not. “I’m con-
stantly inquisitive and wanting to keep myself entertained,
therefore authentic, therefore engaged and wholeheartedly
invested in what I’m doing,” he says. Ward is—and always
has been—a wide-eyed child in awe of his world.In 1977, the Ward family moved from the boonies of
Elkridge, Maryland, to New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen
neighborhood so 7-year-old Jonathan could pursue a
career in acting; before long the talented little kid had
rent covered. Ward met his first muses in Manhattan:
noise, clutter, streetlights, Checker cabs, window dis-
plays, architecture, and antique theaters he worked in.
He’d sneak up to the Vivian Beaumont Theater’s attic to
study the forgotten gears, cables, and pulleys that once
peeled back its articulating roof. During off weeks, Ward
roller-skated between arcades or picked through his
apartment building’s trash chute in search of boom box-
es, fans, or other electronics he could disassemble, study,
repair, and sell. He hustled New Yorkers until 1985, when
CBS relocated him to Los Angeles to play the middle sib-
ling in the TV show “Charles in Charge.”
After regularly taking rides in Tony Danza’s black, split-
window Corvette and the modified Porsche 911 Turbo
of “Charles in Charge” co-star Willie Aames and with a
California driver’s license in sight, Ward decided he was over