While Apple is a secretive company, its Senior Vice President of Industrial Design is even more so.
Jonathan Ive is a mystery to most. Born in London, Ive went to work for Apple in the early 1990s, and worked in anonymity until being promoted by Steve Jobs in 1996. He started at Apple working on the Newton project, but has gone on to lead the design on some of the world’s most iconic pieces of technology, including the iMac, iPod and iPhone. In 2003, he was named Designer of the Year by the Design Museum London and awarded the title Royal Designer for Industry by The Royal Society of Arts.
When Apple announced the “unibody” MacBook Pro, Ive famously spoke on the construction process that went into the new design. He is also featured in almost all of Apple’s product videos.
In 2006, Business Week published an essay titled “Who Is Jonathan Ive?” that gave more detail into the man’s life and work than most had seen before. He was also featured in Objectified, a documentary on design, a couple of years ago.
This week, Ive appeared on NPR’s “All Things Considered” broadcast with Steve Jobs. While the transcript is available at that link, I’d like to highlight one section. This is Ive, speaking about the iPhone:
Everything defers to the display. A lot of what we seem to be doing in a product like that is actually getting design out of the way. And I think when phones develop with that sort of reason and theyre not arbitrary shapes, it feels almost un-designed.
Brilliant.
Article via Cult of Mac
Photo Credit: Apple PR
