Jony Ive says Apple has 'energy and vitality' and he is nowhere close to done
Apple's chief design officer, Jony Ive, addressed a handful of topics during Wired Magazine's 25th-anniversary event on Monday, including his long-term prospects with the company.
Image Credit: Shara Tibken
There remains a lot to do, Ive told Vogue editor Anna Wintour, responding to the question of whether he might stay with Apple for another 25 years. The executive, quoted by journalist Shara Tibken, also noted that he enjoys the team he works with.
The "energy and vitality and sense of opportunity...it's extraordinary and it's very exciting," Ive said.
"If you lose that childlike excitement, I think then probably it's time to do something else," he added later in the interview. Asked whether he's reached that point, Ive simply said "Oh goodness no."
The designer is often credited with much of Apple's success, having been responsible for key design work on products like the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. In recent years his work has extended to retail and software, for example purging skeuomorphism from iOS 7 in favor of a flatter, more synthetic look.
Asked about why Apple is so intensely secretive, Ive offered a personal angle rather the standard view that the company wants to maintain a competitive edge and better impress people at launch events.
"I think it would be bizarre not to be [secretive]," he said. "I don't know many creators who want to talk about what they're doing when they're halfway through it.
"I've been doing this for long enough where I actually feel a responsibility to not confuse or add more noise about what's being worked on because I know that sometimes it does not work out," he continued. The company is known to develop concepts that never see the light of day, such as a full-fledged TV set.
The interview concluded with Ive saying what keeps him up at night is the divisiveness in the U.S. amongst the citizenry, which has intensified as of late. He declined to elaborate on the matter.
Image Credit: Shara Tibken
There remains a lot to do, Ive told Vogue editor Anna Wintour, responding to the question of whether he might stay with Apple for another 25 years. The executive, quoted by journalist Shara Tibken, also noted that he enjoys the team he works with.
The "energy and vitality and sense of opportunity...it's extraordinary and it's very exciting," Ive said.
"If you lose that childlike excitement, I think then probably it's time to do something else," he added later in the interview. Asked whether he's reached that point, Ive simply said "Oh goodness no."
The designer is often credited with much of Apple's success, having been responsible for key design work on products like the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. In recent years his work has extended to retail and software, for example purging skeuomorphism from iOS 7 in favor of a flatter, more synthetic look.
Asked about why Apple is so intensely secretive, Ive offered a personal angle rather the standard view that the company wants to maintain a competitive edge and better impress people at launch events.
"I think it would be bizarre not to be [secretive]," he said. "I don't know many creators who want to talk about what they're doing when they're halfway through it.
"I've been doing this for long enough where I actually feel a responsibility to not confuse or add more noise about what's being worked on because I know that sometimes it does not work out," he continued. The company is known to develop concepts that never see the light of day, such as a full-fledged TV set.
The interview concluded with Ive saying what keeps him up at night is the divisiveness in the U.S. amongst the citizenry, which has intensified as of late. He declined to elaborate on the matter.
Comments
Apple's decision to not let end-users replace the battery or upgrade memory or storage may have been to force people to upgrade their computers more often (and may have been partially caused by the obsession with thinness and no seams in the case), but I think that's going to backfire in the long run. I think people will upgrade less often because of the cost and Apple might even lose some customers who no longer want to pay what Apple now gets for its laptops, which IMO has ventured into ludicrous territory.
The thing about great great designers is that their designs don’t age as they do. Great designers not only perfect what’s happening now, but they are actively hunting for what’s next. And great designers don’t latch onto fads. They create them. I’ve has created many fads: the candy looking Mac enclosures, the metal and glass proliferation in computing, and hunkered down on minimalism in UI. And it has benefitted the world.
Sure, a young upstart can come in and everyone will say “wow! Look at that! It’s so different and lively!” Then 6 months later, it won’t be noticed or even appreciated. It will just create a culture of looking for the next throwaway thing.
Great design is timeless. And the enduring fundamental design of Apple hardware and software - which can sell without needing a refresh for long periods of time is testament to jony’s Success there.
Apple Music was an example of where change was done for the sake of change. iTunes interface worked very well. Then Apple Music messes it all up with version one. Now things are back to timeless design decisions that both look fresh and work well.
The absence of any actual design is obvious as soon as you use their products.
Compared to Jony's style, Zuckerberg looks like a complete twat!
Ive’s entire design philosophy is “form FOLLOWS function” which comes from his design hero Dieter Rams of Braun. Which is why, for example, the Apple Watch is rectangular - see Ram’s digital watch. Ive even copied the spot on the Ram’s design for the Series 3 - though it was yellow not red on Ram’s.
(Though the best example of homage is the copying of Ram’s calculator.)
Yes iPhones aren’t robust if you’re a ‘phone zombie’, walking while holding and operating it one handed. But I’m not, and having owned iPhones without cases for >6 years without cases, I haven’t got so much as a scratch.
(Let me give you another hint, keep your phone in one pocket, your keys and coins in another.)
Why would I need to replace my battery? My 2006 MacBook, the last of the Black Macs still charges and runs fine. Am actually a little annoyed that in 2007 I bought a spare battery for it and have never used it...
Most people don’t want to replace memory or storage, in the same way they don’t want to to install a bigger fuel tank in their car or take a soldering iron to their TV. Which is of course what Jobs always believed computers should be, a closed design, a tool for the mind, not a Meccano kit for tinkerers.
And I’ve always used my iPhones without a case.
I think that is less synthetic. What is more "synthetic" than trying to reproduce leather digitally on a piece of two-dimensional glass?
flatter, simpler design is more "true to" the medium of digital pixels presented on a screen.