Libor Kubín Dear readers, Jablíčkář offers you the exclusive opportunity to read several samples from the upcoming biographical book of Steve Jobs, which will arrive in the Czech Republic on 15 November. Now you can not only pre-order, but at the same time to look into its contents...
Please note that this text has not been proofread.
We start with chapter 25.
Creative principles
The collaboration of Jobs and Ive
When Jobs, after taking over as interim chief executive in September 1997, called the top management together and delivered a rousing speech, among the audience was a perceptive and passionate thirty-year-old Briton, the head of the company's design team. Jonathan Ive - to all Jons - wanted to leave Apple. He did not identify with the company's primary focus on profit maximization rather than product design. Jobs' speech made him reconsider that intention. “I remember very vividly when Steve said that our goal is not just to make money, but to create great products,” Ive recalls. "Decisions based on this philosophy are completely different from the ones we've made at Apple before." Ive and Jobs soon developed a strong bond that eventually led to the best industrial-design collaboration of their era.
Ive grew up in Chingford, a town on the north-eastern outskirts of London. His father was a silversmith who later began teaching at the local vocational school. “Dad is a fantastic craftsman,” says Ive. "One day as a Christmas present he gave me a day of his time when we went to the school workshop together, during the Christmas holidays, when no one was there, and there he helped me make everything I came up with." The only condition was that Jony had to have everything , draw by hand what he wants to produce. "I have always perceived the beauty of things made by hand. Later I realized that the most important thing is the care one gives to it. I hate it when carelessness and indifference can be seen in the product.”
Ive attended Newcastle Polytechnic and worked in a design consultancy in his spare time and holidays. One of his creations was a pen with a small ball on top that could be played with. Thanks to this, the owner has developed an emotional relationship with the pen. As his thesis, Ive created a headset microphone – made of pure white plastic – to communicate with hearing-impaired children. His apartment was full of foam models that he created as he tried to get the most perfect design possible. He also designed an ATM and a curved telephone, both of which won a Royal Society of Arts award. Unlike other designers, he doesn't just make nice sketches, but also focuses on the technical and functional side of things. One of the defining moments during his studies was the opportunity to try his hand at designing on a Macintosh. "When I discovered the Mac, I felt a kind of connection with the people who worked on the product," he recalls. "I suddenly understood how a business works, or how it should work."
After graduating, Ive participated in the founding of the Tangerine design firm in London, which later won a consulting contract with Apple. In 1992, he moved to Cupertino, California, where he accepted a position in Apple's design department. In 1996, a year before Jobs returned, he became the head of this department, but he was not happy. Amelio didn't place much importance on design. "There wasn't an effort to take extra care of the products because we were trying to maximize profits first and foremost," says Ive. "We designers only had to design a nice exterior, and then the engineers made sure that the interior was as cheap as possible. I was going to quit.”
When Jobs assumed the aforementioned position and gave his welcome speech, Ive finally decided to stay. But Jobs initially looked for a world-class designer from the outside. He spoke with Richard Sapper, who designed the ThinkPad for IBM, and Giorgetto Giugiaro, who created the design of the Ferrari 250 and the Maserati Ghibli I. But then he also visited Apple's design department, where he was impressed by the friendly, enthusiastic and very conscientious Ive. "We discussed approaches to forms and materials together," Ive recalls. "I recognized that we are both tuned in to the same wave. And I understood why I like the company so much.”
Jobs later described to me the respect with which he treated Ive:
"Jony's contribution not only to Apple, but to the world in general, is enormous. He is an extremely intelligent person and a versatile personality. He understands business and marketing matters. He can grasp things comprehensively. He understands the principles of our society better than anyone else. If I have a soulmate at Apple, it's Jony. We come up with most of the products together, and then we go to others and ask them, 'What do you think about this?' He is able to see the whole of each product as well as the smallest details. And he understands that Apple is a company built around products. He's not just a designer. That's why it works for me. He is as operational as few at Apple but me. There is no one in the company who can tell him what and how to do or to go away. This is how I set it up.
Like most designers, Ive enjoyed analyzing the philosophy and thought processes that led to a particular design. With Jobs, the creative process was more intuitive. He chose models and drawings simply based on whether he liked them or not. Ive then, based on Jobs' impressions, developed the design to his satisfaction.
Ive was a fan of German industrial designer Dieter Rams, who worked for Braun, a consumer electronics company. Rams preached the gospel of "less but better" -- weniger aber besser -- and like Jobs and Ive, he wrestled with each new design to see how much it could be simplified. Ever since Jobs declared in his first Apple brochure that "the greatest perfection is simplicity," he has always pursued a simplicity that comes from mastering all complexities, not ignoring them. "It's hard work," he said, "to do something simple, really understand all the challenges and potential problems, and come up with an elegant solution."
In Ive, Jobs found a kindred spirit in his search for real, not just external, simplicity.
Ive once described his philosophy in his design studio:
"Why do we think that what is simple is good? Because with physical products, a person must feel that he controls them, that he is their master. Bringing order to complexity is the way to get the product to obey you. Simplicity is not just a visual style. It's not just minimalism or the absence of chaos. It's about diving into the depths of complexity. In order for a thing to be truly simple, you have to go deep into it. For example, if you strive to have no screws on something, you can end up with a very complex, complicated product. It is better to go deeper and understand the whole product and how it is made. Only then can you create simplicity. To be able to strip a product of parts that are not necessary, you have to have a deep understanding of its spirit.”
Jobs and Ive shared this fundamental principle. For them, design didn't just mean how the product looks from the outside. The design had to reflect the essence of the product. "In most people's vocabulary, design means tinsel," Jobs told Fortune in an interview shortly after taking the reins at Apple again. "But for me, this understanding is completely far from how I perceive design. Design is the elemental soul of human creation, which manifests itself in further and further outer levels."
Therefore, at Apple, the process of creating a product design was inextricably linked with its technical construction and production. Ive talks about one of Apple's Power Macs: "We wanted to strip it of everything that wasn't absolutely essential," he says. “This required thorough collaboration between designers, developers, engineers and the production team. We went back to the beginning again and again. Do we need this part? Is it possible for it to perform the function of the other four components?”
How Jobs and Ive felt strongly about connecting product design and its essence with its production is illustrated when they once went to a kitchen supply store while traveling in France. Ive picked up a knife he liked, but immediately put it down in disappointment. Jobs did the same. “We both noticed a little glue residue between the hilt and the blade,” Ive recalls. They then talked together about how the good design of the knife was completely buried by the way the knife was made. We don't like to see the knives we use glued together,” says Ive. "Steve and I notice things that destroy the purity and distract from the essence of the product, and we both think about how to make our products look absolutely clean and perfect."
The Jony Ive-led design studio on the ground floor of the Infinite Loop 2 building on Apple's campus is hidden behind tinted windows and heavy armored doors. Behind them is a glassed-in reception, where two female assistants guard the entrance. Even most Apple employees don't have free access here. Most of the interviews I did with Jony Ive for this book took place elsewhere, but on one occasion, in 2010, Ive arranged for me to spend an afternoon in the studio, looking at everything and talking about how here Ive and Jobs worked together.
To the left of the entrance is an open space where the young designers have their desks, and to the right is a closed main room with six long steel tables where they work on the upcoming models. Behind the main room is a studio with a series of computer workstations, from where you enter a room with molding machines that turn what is on the monitors into foam models. Next, there is a chamber with a spray robot that makes sure the models look real. It's austere and industrial here, all in metallic gray decor. The crowns of the trees behind the windows create moving figures on the dark glass of the windows. Techno and jazz sound in the background.
As long as Jobs was healthy, he had lunch with Ive almost every day, and in the afternoon they went to tour the studio together. Immediately upon entering, Jobs inspected the tables of upcoming products to make sure they aligned with Apple's strategy, examining the evolving form of each with his own hands. Usually it was just the two of them. The other designers only looked up from their work when they arrived, but kept a respectful distance. If Jobs wanted to solve something specific, he would call the head of mechanical design or someone else from Ive's subordinates. When he was excited about something or had an idea about the company's strategy, he sometimes brought CEO Tim Cook or marketing chief Phil Schiller with him to the studio. Ive describes how it went:
“This amazing room is the only place in the entire company where you can look around and see everything we're working on. When Steve arrives, he sits down at one of the tables. For example, when we are working on the new iPhone, he takes a chair and starts playing with different models, touching them and turning them in his hands and saying which one he likes best. Then he looks over the other tables, it's just him and me, and examines how the other products are being developed. In an instant, he gets an idea of the whole situation, the current development of the iPhone, iPad, iMac and laptop, everything we deal with. Thanks to this, he knows what the company spends energy on and how things are connected to each other. And sometimes he says: 'Does it make sense to do this? We grow a lot here,' or something similar. They try to perceive things in relation to each other, and that is quite challenging in such a large company. Looking at the models on the tables, he is able to see the future of the next three years.
A major part of the creative process is communication. We are also constantly walking around the tables and playing with the models. Steve does not like to examine complex drawings. He needs to see the model, hold it in his hand, touch it. And he's right. Sometimes I'm surprised that the model we make looks like crap, even though it looked great in the CAD drawings.
Steve loves coming here because it's quiet and peaceful. A paradise for a visually oriented person. No formal design evaluation, no complex decision making. On the contrary, we make decisions quite smoothly. Since we work on our products on a daily basis, we discuss everything together every time and do without silly presentations, we don't risk major disagreements."
On the day I visited the studio, Ive was overseeing the development of a new European plug and connector for the Macintosh. Dozens of foam models were molded and painted in even the finest variations for examination. Someone might wonder why the head of design deals with such things, but Jobs himself was involved in overseeing the development. Since the creation of a special power supply for the Apple II, Jobs has been concerned not only with the construction, but also with the design of such components. He personally holds a patent for a white power "brick" for the MacBook or for a magnetic connector. For completeness: as of early 2011, he was registered as a co-inventor on two hundred and twelve different patents in the United States.
Ive and Jobs were also passionate about the packaging of various Apple products, some of which they also patented. For example, patent number D558,572 issued in the United States on January 1, 2008 is for an iPod nano box. The four drawings show how the device is nestled in the cradle when the box is open. Patent number D596,485, issued on July 21, 2009, is again for the iPhone's case, its sturdy cover and the small shiny plastic body inside.
Early on, Mike Markkula explained to Jobs that people judge "a book by its cover," so it's important to tell by the cover that there's a gem inside. Whether it's an iPod mini or a MacBook Pro, Apple customers already know what it's like to open a well-crafted case and see how carefully the product is nestled inside. “Steve and I spent a lot of time on the covers,” says Ive. "I love when I unwrap something. If you want to make the product special, think about the unwrapping ritual. Packaging can be theater, it can be a finished story.”
Ive, who had the sensitive nature of an artist, sometimes became irritated when Jobs took too much credit. His colleagues shook their heads over this habit of his for years. At times, Ive felt a little squeamish about Jobs. "He looked at my ideas and said, 'This isn't good, this isn't great, I like this,'" Ive recalls. “And then I sat in the audience and heard him talking about something as if it was his idea. I pay close attention to where each idea comes from, I even keep a journal of my ideas. So I'm really very sorry if they appropriate any of my designs.” Ive also bristles when outsiders claim that Apple is standing on Jobs's ideas. "That puts Apple at a huge disadvantage as a company," Ive says bluntly, but calmly. Then he pauses and after a moment acknowledges what role Jobs is actually playing. "The ideas that my team and I come up with would be completely useless without Steve pushing us, working with us, and overcoming any obstacles that would prevent us from turning our ideas into a concrete product."
Amazing..
Interesting :)))
That's gorgeous. I can totally see how it was going on there. It's just that when something is done with love and as the meaning of life, you know it right away. I know, a bit sentimental, but still. Would any of you want to work in a company where someone will actually rationally accept your ideas or send them to a sipk? I personally think that both are good for the development of any person who can do something.
Thanks for the snippet. Let the printer spit it out and it will arrive ;)
Can someone explain to me the statement “Does it make sense to do this? We grow a lot here”? Either it's a translation error, or I don't know Czech anymore, but it seems like complete nonsense to me. Otherwise, the book could be quite interesting, ideal for an iPad for some summer lounging in a hotel room (after burning).
Sorry for the response, it was a mistake - it should have gone as a separate post.
Some passages should be exposed to the flatterers of the competition and those who do not understand how difficult it is to come up with a design and what they were dealing with, somewhere in front of the face, preferably on the front page of the list.
thanks for the pointer. I had enough, I just couldn't stand this. I don't see anything interesting to read about it. on the one hand, I probably wouldn't start a resume. and then also, buying his biography seems to me like a kind of idolization of Steve Jobs. I like the products of the company he founded because of their compatibility and build quality. that's all, I don't care about the rest :] I'm not insulting anyone or anything like that, so please don't respond to my post and don't have to defend how great Steve was and that I'm ignorant...
I probably won't buy it either, even though it's a pleasant read, but I've never heard that reading a certain person's biography is deified (horrible word). There would be gods like us here... :) I would take it more like wanting to get to know someone closer who I don't actually have a chance to know personally and who is sympathetic to me in certain ways. It's like if I admire a work, I don't know for example Da Vinci, but as a matter of principle not to be interested in him and not even look at the documentary in case he doesn't turn out to be a god :) Characteristic of most Czechs - why would we recognize someone what if he happens to be very popular. Let someone quietly do something, invent something, but let him not be seen too much so that he doesn't think too much or be, God forbid, rich.
Sorry, but the reaction had to come :)
I have to respond too. I quite understand the opinion, we all take it differently. But I think it's great when you see how much attention was put into the products you use every day. And this excerpt also proves that Apple has a different philosophy from most manufacturers of the same devices. Knowing that the "boss" himself was behind the creation of the product I want to buy gives me a much greater sense of confidence.
PS: So I started reading. :)
Do you know how many "creative" designers Samsung needs to create a tablet?
Two - one holds the iPad and the other draws it :-)
Perfect :DDD
Bah… now reading this is like masturbating in front of an already wet bun in bed…
I really hope that this is not a sample from the final Czech translation. If it was translated by one of you or perhaps by Google Translator, then good. But if it is the work of the translator, then it is a real horror and horror.
I don't know - I found it correct, grammatically and stylistically, and I don't find anything in it that would irritate / discourage me - let alone some remnants of automatic translation - but it's your opinion and I won't take it from you, of course.
In which case we are all in ***** more and deeper than I feared. I assure you, grammatically possible, but stylistically it is not right in the slightest. The sentence constructions are English, the many turns are a literal translation... If the resulting translation is really like this, I'd rather buy the original.
For the most anticipated book of the year, such an official translation would be a real shame worthy of the Pranýr of translators.
This is a shortened version. Yes, it is the official translation. I assume, however, that the text of the book will go through at least one more revision.
It seems perfectly fine to me, it reads well, it is much better than many Czech translations.
Where can I order?
For example here: http://jablickar.cz/kniha-steve-jobs/
what to add, I was thinking the same thing... I haven't even finished it, I don't want to thank you... why are people translating who don't have a sense of language and don't know the craft... readers are becoming less demanding, nobody monitors the quality... it's a shame, it could be an interesting book if it were CZECH!
Ordered from Amazon in the original, should arrive in the next week.
LK: Thank you for the information. I just don't understand why such an important book is being translated by someone who doesn't speak Czech properly. May I know who is the author of that translation and how long has he been in translation, if you know? Thanks.
I don't know, I have no idea. We got it from the publisher. I cannot influence the choice of the translator.
Unfortunately, the translation is really horrible stylistically! I'm very disappointed, I was really looking forward to the book, but I'd rather order the original too :( I don't understand why they don't pay someone who can actually translate, Steve definitely deserves it…
Well, I don't know if it's a lucky sample; almost the same was already written in the book Inside Steve's Brain. I would like to read a bigger attraction.
Ad translation: horror, it's full of English and rudeness. I doubt some quick editing will do it. I'm also ordering the original, plus it's after iBooks.
I read the biography of Steve Jobs - the book - in Czech. It's very good. I really liked it. Both factual and stylistic and typographic proofreading has been completed.
For example: the selection is not based on the Czech publisher, but on the American one. The sample was translated completely again because it is shortened.
We are preparing more excerpts. We will now focus more on Czech.
As the publisher of the Czech edition, I can assure you: HYPER CRITICS ARE NOT RIGHT. First of all, it should be said that the book will have 680 pages. It has its own style and rhythm. It should be read from the beginning. It's just a world unto itself. Allowed samples are not even entire continuous chapters, but shortened versions of them. The text can sometimes appear disjointed. So far, however, everyone who has started reading the book from the beginning has completely fallen for it. It is a remarkable probe, a portrait of a remarkable personality. Even though the translation had to be done in a record short time, it definitely fully conveys the content and message of the book. A team of experienced editors is working on it. Sure, there's always room for improvement. And we are improving until the last moment.
Glad to hear it. I will therefore hope that the editors will have enough space and opportunities to work on the most striking Anglicisms that stick out and drip from this sample; adjust sentence structures so that they do not copy English and sound Czech; join short sentences where they are common in English, but where Czech typically uses conjunctions; removes passives foreign to Czech; corrects very lame translations (here, for example, box instead of box, rather inappropriate "body" etc.); removes failed translations of idioms and figurative phrases (is "design the elemental soul of human creation" really? wtf?) etc.
In any case, I will definitely not order this book as soon as it comes out in Czech, as I originally intended, but first I will skim through it and if I find a pseudo-Czech text like this, from which Čapek must be spinning in his grave, I will rather buy it English original.
Will there be interesting photos in the book or just text?
The book will also include 16 pages of pictorial appendices. Perhaps a photo will be inserted between the chapters.
That is the last information.
I recently read a nice article about why Steve Jobs was such a special person, if you are interested, check out http://www.ictmanazer.cz/2011/10/proc-byl-steve-jobs-vyjimecnym-manazerem/