Filed under: Hardware, Interviews
Jonathan Ive interviewed
Jonathan Ive, seen here sharing a laugh with his Steveness over an iMac, is the man largely responsible for the current look of Apple's products (going back to the original iMac). The British Design Museum interviewed Ive, and he had many interesting things to say. The most interesting thing, to me, and the one that I think sums up Apple very nicely is when questioned as to what makes his designs different he said it was a, 'fanatical care beyond the obvious stuff.'That's why, for the most part, Apple gear 'just works,' and it is a large part of the reason that I, for one, am so passionate about a faceless corporation and its products.
[via Bookofjoe]
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tourian said 11:51PM on 11-17-2005
Dude.
Ancient news.
I got all excited because Ive is my god and I'm gonna study industrial design.
Ack.
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Dimitris said 2:27PM on 11-17-2005
Isn't this interview like what, 2 years old?
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Sean Flanagan said 2:42PM on 11-17-2005
As a designer, I would like to take this opportunity to gripe. Jonathan Ive is a talented designer, but he did not design Apple's products all by his lonesome. Apple has a TEAM of industrial designers who work hand-in-hand with the software and engineering teams to develop these amazing products. The Apple Industrial Design Team is led by Ive, meaning he approves or vetoes ideas and designs, and introduces ideas to the rest of the team for them to proceed with the design. Too often in the design world is a "name" attached to a design when that "name" really had very little to do with the actual designing. All of the Michael Graves products in Target, for instance. It's like a movie being called a Steven Spielberg film, and then not having any other credits listed.
That said, Ive is (by accounts I've read and heard) a VERY hands-on design director and will often develop some of his ideas independently of the rest of the team. Sometimes these make it through, sometimes they don't. But the point of the whole thing is, Jonathan Ive alone is not Apple industrial design.
"Sounds like the ranting of a low-level designer," you're probably thinking. You'd probably be right. :-D
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antizeit said 2:58PM on 11-17-2005
Right - Ives is certainly given a lot of credit - heck people are even making t-shirts with his face: http://www.spreadshirt.com/shop.php?op=articles&motive_id=396461
Wheres the t-shirt with the rest of apples indrustrial-design team?
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Jay said 4:47PM on 11-17-2005
Great comment, Sean!
- From another low-level designer :-)
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Ronaldo McDonaldo said 8:48PM on 11-17-2005
well, not really faceless at all... if not ive, then certainly jobs - and the mac smiley over the years? hehe, better than the sweaty contorted face of steve ballmer or gates' embarassed mug every time a demo crashes rofl
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Callum Alden said 5:38PM on 11-17-2005
that's a wonderful photo... I bet the interviewer was saying something like "hey, but Windows XP - its pretty slick, right?"
That's the only way I can excuse that photo's pose-y-ness.
"pretty slick" heh.
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Scott McNulty said 5:36PM on 11-17-2005
Dimitris, I think this interview is fairly recent, but even if it isn't we haven't covered it before so it is new to us. :)
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Eddie said 11:53PM on 11-17-2005
Nah! This interview is old!
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SpacePirate said 12:12AM on 11-18-2005
It's no more than a year old; the timeline at the bottom lists his promotion to Vice President of Industrial Design, which occurred fairly recently, and the release of the Mac mini.
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