Ondrej Holzman Provision Jony Ive's design director his most important subordinates also rose to higher positions. Richard Howarth became the new vice president of industrial design, about whom the public did not know much. Who is this designer who will continue to keep the British footprint at Apple?
Richard Howarth, who is in his forties, may have been born in Lukas, Zambia, but according to Stephen Fry, he is "as English as Vimto", referring to the British soda pop. Howarth graduated from Ravensbourne University of Design near Greenwich, where David Bowie, Stella McCartney and Dinos Chapman also graduated.
During his studies, Howarth got to Japan, where he worked on one of the Walkman prototypes at Sony. After school, he moved overseas and worked at the design firm IDEO in the Bay Area. After a few years, Jony Ive chose him for Apple in 1996. "He's incredibly, absurdly talented (…) and also a great friend," declared Jony Ive about Howarth at an RSA (Royal Society of Arts, Crafts and Commerce) event a year ago.
In the mid-90s, Ive acquired many key people for his design team at Apple, who then formed the tightest team of about twenty members for many years. In addition to Howarth, there were also Christopher Stringer, Duncan Robert Kerr and Doug Statzer.
One of the fathers of the first iPhone
During his 20-year career at Apple, Howarth led the design work on many key products including the first iPod, the PowerBook, the first plastic MacBook, as well as the first iPhone. "Richard was at the helm of the first iPhone from the very beginning," he revealed Ive in an interview for The Telegraph . "He was there from the first prototypes to the first model we released."
The development of the iPhone began in Cupertino years before the first generation was shown to the public in 2007. The designers then created two major directions (see the image above), behind one prototype, called "Extrudo", was Chris Stringer, behind the other, called "Sandwich", was Richard Howarth.
The Extrudo was aluminum, similar to the iPod nano, but Howarth's model progressed to further development. It was made of plastic and had a metal frame. The sandwich was more sophisticated, but the engineers couldn't figure out how to make the phone thin enough at the time. Eventually, however, they returned to Howarth's design in the designs of the iPhone 4 and 4S.
In Apple's design workshops, Howarth has built up respect over time. In an extensive profile of Jony Ive v The New Yorker he was described as "a tough guy when it comes to running things. (…) He is feared.” In his book about Jony Ive, Leander Kahney interviewed Doug Satzger, who worked with Howarth in the beginning.
Love for plastic
According to Intel's current vice president of design, Howarth would come to meetings thinking he had some stupid idea and that others would surely hate it, but then presented everyone with absolutely perfect designs of his work. So far, his name appears in 806 Apple patents. Jony Ive has over 5 for comparison.
His affinity for other materials also sets him apart from Ive Howarth. While Ive prefers aluminum, Howarth seems to prefer plastic. The already mentioned iPhone "Sandwich" prototype was mainly made of plastic, and on a similar basis, Howarth also designed several plastic versions of the iPad. The plastic MacBook that Apple introduced in 2006 speaks for itself. It was Howarth who was largely behind it.
In public, Howarth practically does not appear, but due to his promotion, we can expect that Apple will introduce him more and more often, either in the press or during some presentations. What is known is that he lives on a hill above Dolores Park in San Francisco with his wife Victoria Shaker and two children.
Even Victoria Shaker is not an unknown name in the world of design. As vice president of product design at Ammunition Group, for example, she was involved in the creation of the very successful Beats headphones, which Apple took under its wing last year as part of a giant acquisition.
Outside of Apple, Howarth is mainly known for his meritorious activity towards the already mentioned Royal Society of Arts, Crafts and Commerce. Since then, in 1993/94, he has received the student design award along with a bonus of $4. Howarth then used this money for a trip to Japan and an internship at Sony.
"I don't know how else I could do it. It launched my career and really changed my life," Howarth later told the Royal Society, and as a thank you he launched an award under his own name (the Richard Howarth Award) last year, in which Apple's new vice-president chooses two winners who share exactly that amount. which Howarth received from the RSA in 1994.
The plastic MacBook was great, but aluminum is just a little better. Samd will not seek to return the palsts.
I think they definitely learned from the iPhone 5C.
I do not know. I saw renders of a "cheap" iPhone 6c somewhere. Again, "wonderful" pastel colors - evidently the same as 5c. So we'll see.
well, don't be angry, but the 5c is the first and so far the last phone since the 3gs that fits perfectly in the hand. I've had the yellow version for almost a year now and I'm totally satisfied.
The iPhone 6 also fits nicely in my hand. It's great that we're both happy. You are the first 5c owner I have met. (I mean no harm)