Ondrej Holzman Jonathan Ive briefly jumped from Cupertino to his native Great Britain, where he was knighted in London's Buckingham Palace. On this occasion, the 45-year-old Ive gave a comprehensive interview in which he emphasizes his British roots and also reveals that he and his colleagues at Apple are working on "something big..."
An interview with the man behind the design of apple products was brought to the newspaper The Telegraph and in it Ive admits that he is greatly honored and greatly appreciative of being knighted for his contribution to the design. In a very open interview, the likable Briton, who was fundamentally involved in revolutionary products such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad, refers to the British tradition of design, which is truly significant. Although Jonathan Ive is quite possibly one of the most influential designers in the world, he admits that not too many people know him in public. "People are primarily interested in the product itself, not the person behind it," says Ive, for whom his work is also a great hobby. He always wanted to be a designer.
In an interview with Shane Richmond, the bald designer carefully considers each answer, and when he talks about his work at Apple, he always speaks in the first person plural. He believes in teamwork and often uses the word simplicity. "We try to develop products that have their own merits. This then leaves you feeling like it all makes sense. We don't want design to get in the way of our products that serve as tools. We strive to bring simplicity and clarity," explains Ive, who joined Cupertino exactly 20 years ago. He previously worked as a consultant for Apple.
Ive, who lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children, often comes up with an idea with his colleagues that is so novel that it is not enough to invent just the design, but the entire manufacturing process by which the factories produce it. For him, receiving a knighthood is a reward for the great work he is doing in Cupertino, although we can expect him to enrich the world with his ideas for many years to come.
[do action=”quote”]However, the truth is that what we are working on now looks like one of the most important and best projects we have ever created.[/do]
He does not have a clear answer to the question, if he had to choose a single product for which people should remember him, moreover, he thinks about it for a long time. "It's a tough choice. But the truth is, what we're working on right now looks like one of the most important and best projects we've ever created, so that would be this product, but obviously I can't tell you anything about it." Ive confirms the general secrecy of Apple, which the Californian company is famous for.
Although Jonathan Ive is a designer, the London native himself states that his work does not only revolve around design. "The word design can have many meanings, as well as none. We are not talking about design per se, but rather about creating and developing thoughts and ideas and creating products,” says Ive, who in 1998 designed the iMac that helped resurrect a then-bankrupt Apple. Three years later, he introduced to the world the most successful music player of all time, the iPod, and changed the market with the iPhone and later the iPad. Ive has an indelible stake in all products.
"Our goal is to simply solve complex problems that the customer doesn't even recognize. But simplicity does not mean the absence of overpayment, that is just a consequence of simplicity. Simplicity describes the purpose and meaning of an object or product. No overpayment means a 'non-overpaid' product. But that's not simplicity," explains Ive the meaning of his favorite word.
He has devoted his whole life to his work and is fully devoted to it. Ive describes the importance of being able to put an idea on paper and give it some dimension. He says he judges his twenty-year career at Apple by the problems he solved with his team. And it must be said that Ive, like Steve Jobs, is a great perfectionist, so he wants to have even the smallest problem solved. "When we're really close to a problem, we invest a lot of resources and a lot of time to solve even the smallest details that sometimes don't even affect functionality. But we do it because we think it's right," explains Ive.
"It's kind of 'making the back of the drawer.' You might argue that people will never see this part and it's very hard to describe why it's important, but that's just how it feels to us. It's our way of showing that we really care about the people we create products for. We feel that responsibility towards them,” says Ive, debunking the story that he was inspired to create the iPad 2 by watching the technique of making samurai swords.
Many prototypes are created in Ivo's laboratory, which has darkened windows and access to which only selected colleagues are allowed, which then never see the light of day. Ive admits that decisions often have to be made about whether to continue developing a particular product. “In many cases we had to say 'no, this is not good enough, we have to stop'. But such a decision is always difficult," admits Ive, saying that the same process occurred with the iPod, iPhone or iPad. "Many times we don't even know for a long time whether the product will be created at all or not."
But what's important, according to the senior vice president of industrial design, is that most of his team has been together for more than 15 years, so everyone's learning and making mistakes together. "You don't learn anything unless you try lots of ideas and fail lots of times" says Ive. His opinion on teamwork is also related to the fact that he does not agree that the company should stop doing well after the departure of Steve Jobs. "We create products exactly the same way we did two, five or ten years ago. We work as a large group, not as individuals.'
And it is in the cohesion of the team that Ive sees Apple's next success. "We have learned to learn and solve problems as a team and it gives us satisfaction. For example, in the way that you are sitting on a plane and most of the people around you are using something that you created together. That is a wonderful reward.”
In fact, everything that Apple presents pretends to be the most important thing in the world, so it could easily be a lamp with an iPod
Actually, I work in development and I know how difficult it is to create products that even remotely resemble Apple products. They have my great appreciation, and to be honest, I don't understand your comment, but that's probably because it doesn't make sense.
Lamp with iPad or iPhone? A two-year-old idea, decently implemented by the Italian company Flos. http://www.hauteliving.com/2012/01/let-there-be-light-flos-turns-ipad-into-a-lamp/
They wrote almost the same thing in HN. Word by word.
Holt drew from the same source. However, unlike HN, we (the source) present it in its entirety.