Interesting Steve/Jony Ive tidbit
I was reading a great profile on the designer Marc Newson in the NY Times. Apparently he is very good friends with Jonathan Ive. At the end of the article there was this touching paragraph:
I never knew that Jony was with Steve and his family when he died. I'd always read that they were good friends but I didn't know they were that close. I guess that explains why Ive wasn't at the iPhone 4S launch event. Just reading that paragraph though made me a bit teary-eyed.
Quote:
What made the nostalgia seem even keener was something that happened in the car when we were heading into London after the flight from Italy. Newson?s iPhone rang. Ive was calling to tell him about the death of Steve Jobs the night before. Newson listened as Ive tried to convey how moving it was to be in the room with Jobs and his family during the last moments. And how strange it was to be driving home afterward, hearing the great apostle of design eulogized on the radio by the president of the United States. Newson listened and commiserated and said a few of the usual things. Did it seem hard, all of a sudden, to put so much faith in the idea that nature never makes a mistake? When he lay the phone down, he was quiet for a long time. The outskirts of London rushed past the window. It was in the car with us, whatever it was ? his friend?s sorrow or the finiteness of life and the mystery of its inscrutable design.
What made the nostalgia seem even keener was something that happened in the car when we were heading into London after the flight from Italy. Newson?s iPhone rang. Ive was calling to tell him about the death of Steve Jobs the night before. Newson listened as Ive tried to convey how moving it was to be in the room with Jobs and his family during the last moments. And how strange it was to be driving home afterward, hearing the great apostle of design eulogized on the radio by the president of the United States. Newson listened and commiserated and said a few of the usual things. Did it seem hard, all of a sudden, to put so much faith in the idea that nature never makes a mistake? When he lay the phone down, he was quiet for a long time. The outskirts of London rushed past the window. It was in the car with us, whatever it was ? his friend?s sorrow or the finiteness of life and the mystery of its inscrutable design.
I never knew that Jony was with Steve and his family when he died. I'd always read that they were good friends but I didn't know they were that close. I guess that explains why Ive wasn't at the iPhone 4S launch event. Just reading that paragraph though made me a bit teary-eyed.
Comments
I never knew that Jony was with Steve and his family when he died. I'd always read that they were good friends but I didn't know they were that close. I guess that explains why Ive wasn't at the iPhone 4S launch event. Just reading that paragraph though made me a bit teary-eyed.
I think the iPhone 4S event was tough for the usual Apple team. They seemed a bit flustered and had probably been informed of what was going on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSRoG-AsCw0
I wasn't aware of the closeness between Ive and Jobs until finding out about him giving Ive more operational power than anyone else at Apple. This story makes a lot of sense in that light.
The description of the effect the event had is quite apt. Death is a very strange event. We hear about it every day in the media but it only really has strength when it's something that you make part of your life. Even when you can see it coming and prepare for it, once that instant occurs and you get the message that this part of your life is gone, it can hit pretty hard and it feels wrong because those people defined their reason you choose to be close to them and no reason is given for their loss.
The media questioned why people would mourn a business leader but people made Apple and its representative part of their lives because of what we all care about deep down: music, film, art, design, aesthetics. No one deep down cares about Microsoft Word (not even writers) because it doesn't inspire people and so the makers of those type of products won't get the same recognition.
The world needs more creativity and passion, it doesn't need endless utilitarian pap. When so few people have the drive to give creativity the importance it deserves and we lose any of the people who do, we all lose out. Hopefully Apple's senior staff will continue in the same vein. I wonder how close Ive is with the rest of the team, I only recall seeing interactions between Jobs and Ive.