A history of Jony Ive at Apple: From consultant to Chief Design Officer
Jony Ive -- appointed this week as Apple's first-ever Chief Design Officer -- has a long history of design work for Apple, stretching all the way back to a consulting role in the early 1990s.
Before joining Apple, Ive was part of a London design firm called Tangerine, where he worked on a number of household products such as kitchen and bathroom appliances. One Tangerine client was Apple though, and Ive officially joined Apple in 1992, following work on the PowerBook and two years of the company trying to recruit him.
Ive finally made the leap when some of his output for another Tangerine client was rejected for being too expensive and looking too modern.
Prior to the return of Steve Jobs as CEO in 1997, Ive worked on largely forgotten Apple products such as the Newton MessagePad 110. The designer in fact almost quit, and was only persuaded to stay by then-senior vice president of Hardware Engineering Jon Rubinstein, who gave him a raise and promised that Apple would achieve great things once the company made a turnaround.
Under Jobs, Ive was appointed senior vice president of Industrial Design. He then began work on the products that would make his reputation, the first being 1998's iMac, famous for its compact gumdrop shape. Ive was also instrumental in the design of 2001's iPod, 2007's iPhone, and 2010's iPad, along with various other products big and small. Most recently, Ive helped to create this year's Apple Watch.
The company's runaway success led to Ive and Jobs developing a close working relationship until the latter's death in 2011. The two collaborated on many aspects of design, and Ive was given free reign to explore ideas.
For example, Ive was given a private design lab that remains one of the most secret areas at Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters.
Following the death of Jobs, the company was subsequently rocked by a number of corporate shakeups, such as the firing of iOS head Scott Forstall on October 29, 2012. That same day Ive assumed even greater power as senior vice president of Design, handling not just hardware but also software interfaces.
iOS 7 was an early result, dropping the skeuomorphic trappings preferred by Forstall in favor of a flatter, colorful look with translucent layers.
This week's newly announced Chief Design Officer promotion will see Ive shift into a more hands-off role. Although he will still watch over product design and generate new ideas of his own, subordinates Alan Dye and Richard Howarth will take over daily interface and hardware design. Ive will in fact add construction projects to his repertoire, such as the new Campus 2 building and future Apple Stores.
The new position has led some to speculate that Ive could be gradually transitioning out of Apple. Dye was responsible for the Watch's human interface design, and Howarth helped launch the iPhone, which could make the pair more than capable of taking over Ive's legacy.
Before joining Apple, Ive was part of a London design firm called Tangerine, where he worked on a number of household products such as kitchen and bathroom appliances. One Tangerine client was Apple though, and Ive officially joined Apple in 1992, following work on the PowerBook and two years of the company trying to recruit him.
Ive finally made the leap when some of his output for another Tangerine client was rejected for being too expensive and looking too modern.
Prior to the return of Steve Jobs as CEO in 1997, Ive worked on largely forgotten Apple products such as the Newton MessagePad 110. The designer in fact almost quit, and was only persuaded to stay by then-senior vice president of Hardware Engineering Jon Rubinstein, who gave him a raise and promised that Apple would achieve great things once the company made a turnaround.
Under Jobs, Ive was appointed senior vice president of Industrial Design. He then began work on the products that would make his reputation, the first being 1998's iMac, famous for its compact gumdrop shape. Ive was also instrumental in the design of 2001's iPod, 2007's iPhone, and 2010's iPad, along with various other products big and small. Most recently, Ive helped to create this year's Apple Watch.
The company's runaway success led to Ive and Jobs developing a close working relationship until the latter's death in 2011. The two collaborated on many aspects of design, and Ive was given free reign to explore ideas.
For example, Ive was given a private design lab that remains one of the most secret areas at Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters.
Following the death of Jobs, the company was subsequently rocked by a number of corporate shakeups, such as the firing of iOS head Scott Forstall on October 29, 2012. That same day Ive assumed even greater power as senior vice president of Design, handling not just hardware but also software interfaces.
iOS 7 was an early result, dropping the skeuomorphic trappings preferred by Forstall in favor of a flatter, colorful look with translucent layers.
This week's newly announced Chief Design Officer promotion will see Ive shift into a more hands-off role. Although he will still watch over product design and generate new ideas of his own, subordinates Alan Dye and Richard Howarth will take over daily interface and hardware design. Ive will in fact add construction projects to his repertoire, such as the new Campus 2 building and future Apple Stores.
The new position has led some to speculate that Ive could be gradually transitioning out of Apple. Dye was responsible for the Watch's human interface design, and Howarth helped launch the iPhone, which could make the pair more than capable of taking over Ive's legacy.
Comments
Or gradually transitioning into the next CEO. it all depends on how you look at. Relieve him of the daily minutia to concentrate on the larger picture and overall image of Apple.
http://daringfireball.net/2015/05/jony_ive_promotion_chief_design_officer
You don't create a C-suite position for someone who is retiring. No one has been brought in to take over Ive's SVP design role. His two lieutenants who got promotions still report to him. Cook's memo specifically said as CDO Ive had responsibility for all design at Apple and that included "new ideas and new initiatives". So this hardly seems like a ceremonial position. Plus there must be a reason it's not effective until July 1 (after the current fiscal quarter). One thing I am curious about is in Cook's employee memo when talking about Ive's expanding duties he referenced hardware/software design, the new campus, Apple stores and then he added "and many other parts of our company". I'd be curious to know exactly what that means.
I don't understand the logic. Cook promotes Ive to a C-suite position, esentially allows him to delegate the stuff he doesn't want to do so so he can focus on the stuff he wants to and that somehow signals retirement? Where is the logic in that?!?
"The new position has led some to speculate that Ive could be gradually transitioning out of Apple."
Or gradually transitioning into the next CEO. it all depends on how you look at. Relieve him of the daily minutia to concentrate on the larger picture and overall image of Apple.
Ive wanted to return to his family in England in 2011, but Apple paid him to stay. This new role could allow him to return to England and work for Apple from home.
The best thing Jobs did on his return to Apple was see the potential in this guy.
That, along with, somewhat controversially, his convincing Microsoft to invest in Apple and continue Office support, are probably the two moments that most created the most valuable company in the world.
While Ive had a good history and can still do more good at Apple, he should just retire, since he is getting old, developing a belly, and starting to past this prime, and just enjoy himself.
No, Ive disputed that story in the New Yorker profile. He said he and his wife never wanted to leave and they sold their house in England because they were never there. Keep in mind he bought a $17M house in San Francisco and he and his wife became US citizens a few years ago (his children were already citizens as they were born in the here). Another thing to keep in mind is his twin boys are 11 years old now. It seems doubtful that he would want to uproot them and move them to the UK. I don't know how often the family travels there but his boys weren't born there and my guess is they're more American than British.
Anyway I just find this whole theory odd because it's mostly predicated on Ive delegating duties to newly promoted VPs (who still report to him). I think Phil Schiller has at least 6 VPs that report to him. One would assume someone at Ive's level in the company would have VPs reporting to him.
Although Ive has had a good history and could still do more good at Apple, he should just retire, since he is getting old and starting to past his prime, and enjoy himself elsewhere.
That is, he is in charge of all design elements, not executive, operational or financial things in the company... Of course ., if the Design elements encroach upon the E,O,F needs he most likely needs to get the guaranteed YES reply to his request. But, it will still require asking even if the answer is Moot (always yes...)