Simplicity isn’t that simple, says Apple’s design God
Jonathan Ive of
Britain, who was knighted for creating products such as the iPad, opens his
heart and mind to Shane Richmond
Just one person looks twice at Jonathan Ive as we walk through
the Apple store in London’s Covent
Garden and that’s a member of staff. The customers are oblivious
to the presence of the man responsible for the design of the computers, iPads,
iPhones and iPods that they are admiring, tapping and caressing througout the
shop.
Ive, a softly spoken, thoughtful Brit, has worked at Apple in California since 1992, and since 1997 has been in charge of its designs. This may well make him the most influential designer in the world. In creating the iPod, he unleashed a product that profoundly altered the music industry, while the iPhone is doing the same to the mobile phone industry. The most recent product from his team, the iPad, is setting the standard for an entirely new category of computer.
His incredible run of success has made him revered in the design community and helped him to amass a fortune in excess of £80 million. Even so, he says, he isn’t recognised all that often. “People’s interest is in the product, not in its authorship,” he says.
Considerably more people will recognise him from now: he has been knighted for services to design and enterprise. The honour, Sir Jonathan says, is “incredibly humbling”.
“All I’ve ever wanted to do is design and make; it’s what I love doing. It’s great if you can find what you love to do,” he says.
Ive talks about Apple’s attention to detail in its products – details that often won’t be seen by consumers at all – as a desire to “finish the back of the drawer”. “We do it because we think it’s right,” he says. Certain words come up time and again, particularly “simplicity” and “focus”.
It was while he was at university that Ive first encountered an Apple Mac. Having considered himself to be technically inept, he was amazed to find a computer that he could use. “I suddenly realised that it wasn’t me at all. The computers that I had been expected to use were absolutely dreadful.”
That experience made Ive curious about Apple and the people behind it. Later, at Tangerine, the design agency he co-founded, he worked for Apple as a consultant. Twenty years ago, he moved to California to join the company full time. Despite that, he says, he is “definitely the product of a very British design education”.
“We try to develop products that seem somehow inevitable. That leave you with the sense that that’s the only possible solution that makes sense,” he explains. “Our products are tools and we don’t want design to get in the way. We’re trying to bring simplicity and clarity, we’re trying to order the products. I think subconsciously people are remarkably discerning. I think that they can sense care.”
The care that goes into Apple’s products is something that Ive speaks about earnestly. It’s a principle that he traces back to the industrial revolution. “One of the concerns was that there would somehow be, inherent with mass production and industrialisation, a godlessness and a lack of care. We’re keenly aware that a product does speak to a set of values. And what preoccupies us is that sense of care, not a schedule, not some corporate or competitive agenda.”
Ive and his team don’t just design the products that Apple makes. The ideas are often so new that frequently they have to design the entire production process that the factories will use to make them. “Our goal is to ensure designers are not aware of how hard the problem was that was eventually solved.”
In developing ideas, Ive and his team will frequently go to great lengths, studying new materials, creating entirely new processes and consulting with experts from other industries in the search for solutions to whatever problem they are tackling at the time. In developing the original iMac, for example, Ive and his team talked to people in the confectionary industry about how to maintain a consistent level of translucency when producing the candy-coloured shell of the computer.
The last year has been one of significant change for Apple. A new chief executive, Tim Cook, took over just months before the death of Steve Jobs, the former chief executive and co-founder of the company. The absence of Jobs has led some analysts to predict an inevitable decline for the company.
As you would expect, Ive disagrees: “We’re developing products in exactly the same way that we were two years ago, five years ago, ten years ago. It’s not that there are a few of us working in the same way: there is a large group of us working in the same way.” Daily Telegraph
Ive, a softly spoken, thoughtful Brit, has worked at Apple in California since 1992, and since 1997 has been in charge of its designs. This may well make him the most influential designer in the world. In creating the iPod, he unleashed a product that profoundly altered the music industry, while the iPhone is doing the same to the mobile phone industry. The most recent product from his team, the iPad, is setting the standard for an entirely new category of computer.
His incredible run of success has made him revered in the design community and helped him to amass a fortune in excess of £80 million. Even so, he says, he isn’t recognised all that often. “People’s interest is in the product, not in its authorship,” he says.
Considerably more people will recognise him from now: he has been knighted for services to design and enterprise. The honour, Sir Jonathan says, is “incredibly humbling”.
“All I’ve ever wanted to do is design and make; it’s what I love doing. It’s great if you can find what you love to do,” he says.
Ive talks about Apple’s attention to detail in its products – details that often won’t be seen by consumers at all – as a desire to “finish the back of the drawer”. “We do it because we think it’s right,” he says. Certain words come up time and again, particularly “simplicity” and “focus”.
It was while he was at university that Ive first encountered an Apple Mac. Having considered himself to be technically inept, he was amazed to find a computer that he could use. “I suddenly realised that it wasn’t me at all. The computers that I had been expected to use were absolutely dreadful.”
That experience made Ive curious about Apple and the people behind it. Later, at Tangerine, the design agency he co-founded, he worked for Apple as a consultant. Twenty years ago, he moved to California to join the company full time. Despite that, he says, he is “definitely the product of a very British design education”.
“We try to develop products that seem somehow inevitable. That leave you with the sense that that’s the only possible solution that makes sense,” he explains. “Our products are tools and we don’t want design to get in the way. We’re trying to bring simplicity and clarity, we’re trying to order the products. I think subconsciously people are remarkably discerning. I think that they can sense care.”
The care that goes into Apple’s products is something that Ive speaks about earnestly. It’s a principle that he traces back to the industrial revolution. “One of the concerns was that there would somehow be, inherent with mass production and industrialisation, a godlessness and a lack of care. We’re keenly aware that a product does speak to a set of values. And what preoccupies us is that sense of care, not a schedule, not some corporate or competitive agenda.”
Ive and his team don’t just design the products that Apple makes. The ideas are often so new that frequently they have to design the entire production process that the factories will use to make them. “Our goal is to ensure designers are not aware of how hard the problem was that was eventually solved.”
In developing ideas, Ive and his team will frequently go to great lengths, studying new materials, creating entirely new processes and consulting with experts from other industries in the search for solutions to whatever problem they are tackling at the time. In developing the original iMac, for example, Ive and his team talked to people in the confectionary industry about how to maintain a consistent level of translucency when producing the candy-coloured shell of the computer.
The last year has been one of significant change for Apple. A new chief executive, Tim Cook, took over just months before the death of Steve Jobs, the former chief executive and co-founder of the company. The absence of Jobs has led some analysts to predict an inevitable decline for the company.
As you would expect, Ive disagrees: “We’re developing products in exactly the same way that we were two years ago, five years ago, ten years ago. It’s not that there are a few of us working in the same way: there is a large group of us working in the same way.” Daily Telegraph
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