Jony Ive reveals his iMac design took just three weeks
Famed Apple designer Sir Jony Ive has told the BBC about working with Steve Jobs, creating the iMac, and his decision to leave the company to create his own firm.
Ive and Jobs had a close working relationship upon Jobs' return to Apple.
Sir Jony Ive has appeared on BBC Radio's "Desert Island Discs" show in the UK, where a celebrity recounts their life alongside the music that matters most to them. Six years after leaving Apple, he spoke to presenter Lauren Laverne about his time there and why he created his own firm called LoveFrom.
Ive explained that linking both companies was how he saw design -- and also designers. "Every single made object, to me, I see is an ambassador of the people who made it," he said.
"[Design] gives you such a clear idea about what motivated them, what their values are," he added, giving as an example the Macintosh. He said that computer immediately conveyed the attitudes of its designers, giving Ive "a sense of their joy and exuberance in making something they knew was helpful."
Ive began work at Apple with the Newton MessagePad, which was made before Steve Jobs returned to the company. Then when Jobs came back, "immediately there was a connection that was so powerful and so strong."
The two immediately began working on the iMac, a product that had to become a hit because "we were within days of becoming bankrupt, literally days." Ive also described designing the iMac, saying "we did that in the first two or three weeks."
Leaving Apple
Despite his evident pride in his work at Apple, and how important his friendship with Steve Jobs had been there, he said it wasn't a difficult decision to leave.
"I mean it was not a difficult decision, it was a difficult transition having been at Apple for nearly 30 years, and I feel so much of me was there and so much of there was me," he said. "It was just the right time, I think as a team, I think we'd finished a lot of the things that we'd been working on for a long time."
Ive's music choices on the show were chiefly British hits from his youth, including tracks by The Police, Simple Minds, and Bananarama. He also picked "Defined Dancing" by Thomas Newman from the WALL-E soundtrack, and a secret recording of his then five-year-old son Harry singing, recorded on Ive's iPhone.
The episode of Desert Island Discs with Sir Jony Ive can be replayed on demand now from the BBC's Sounds page. It will also be available on the Desert Island Discs podcast starting in early March.
Ive's LoveFrom firm's best known works include the 2023 redesign of UK charity Comic Relief's famous Red Nose, and a $60,000 turntable for Scottish hi-fi pioneers.
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Comments
I very much got the impression that once Steve Jobs died, Jony Ive had to leave Apple. Steve and Jony were close friends, co-mentors and collaborators. Tim Cook is only a logistics guy and resented the power that Jony Ive had at Apple - equal with the ceo. As the Jim Reeves' song goes, "He'll Have to Go".
I am sure that Steve Jobs would have been in two minds as to his preferred successor - Tim Cook or Jony Ive. I think he made the wrong decision.
I am exceptionally appreciative of the design ethos that Ive (and Jobs, obviously) brough to Apple, but I'm very glad that Cook is running the show.
Ive knew it was time to go or he would die of boredom. He pushed Apple design to the limits that hardware tech and materials science can reasonably allow. Any major advances in design at this point are dictated by what the engineers who design and build the components and materials can come up with.
As to the assertion that Ive would have been a better choice than Cook for CEO: To be silent about that opinion is to be kind.
There are always 'what if' scenarios people think about but the reality would have been very different.
"interviewer: Why was it time to go?
Jony: If there's one thing that's inevitable, it's that we do go, the question is just when. It was just the right time. As a team, we had finished a lot of the things we'd been working on for a long time. It wasn't a difficult decision, it was a difficult transition having been at Apple for nearly 30 years.
interviewer: If Steve had still been there, would you have taken that decision?
Jony: I can't imagine being somewhere else and him being somewhere else. I would be working with him now if he was alive."
Steve Jobs would have been 70 now, who knows if he would have stayed that long as CEO. It doesn't matter how much people care about their work, other priorities come up in life like family and taking some time to enjoy the time they have left. Jony Ive has his own family to spend time with.
People also get the impression that there would have been a whole slew of innovations but there's very little left for them to do that Apple hasn't already done or attempted. Maybe Steve would have made a cooler AR headset but he saw the design for the one they made. More likely they wouldn't have launched it until it was more refined. Maybe they would have been able to manufacture a car, maybe not.
When it comes to running a company like Apple, it is a publicly-owned company. This is a bad company structure for people like Steve Jobs and Jony Ive because they are beholden to someone else whose motivation is profit rather than an ideal. Jony Ive would hate running a company that had to answer to finance people like Blackrock and Vanguard, people who are so cynical about the value of their work beyond marketing. He is much better off running his own company and he can always take design jobs for Apple if he wants to while being able to work on a much broader range of products and materials.
He clearly misses having someone who has the unique ability to appreciate good design while being able to follow it through on production without compromise. Steve Jobs was one of a kind but journeys don't last forever, they followed it through to the end.