Apple design team shows off 'quiet and calming' Apple Park
Previously unseen images of the interior of Apple Park have now been revealed by the company's design team, as they discuss working in the iconic building.
View from a fourth floor corridor at Apple Park
Four years after Jony Ive described Apple Park to Wallpaper*, the publication has returned to learn how the completed building feels to its design staff. Evans Hankey, vice president of industrial design, and Alan Dye, vice president of human interface design, say that it's only after a few years that they've come to appreciate the building.
"It's just so quiet and calming," Hankey told Wallpaper*. "We never really understood what that would mean for us until we'd been here for a while. It's been designed for serendipitous meetings as well as collaboration."
The design team moved in to Apple Park three years ago, and the intention from the start was that the whole team would work together.
"We can have industrial designers sat next to a font designer," said Jony Ive back in 2017, "sat next to a sound designer, who is sat next to a motion graphics expert, who is sat next to a colour designer, who is sat next to somebody who is developing objects in soft materials."
Hankey and Dye say that this is exactly what has happened, but also that it took more work than had perhaps been imagined.
Evans Hankey (red top, behind iMacs) leads a design discussion in Apple Park
"We knew very much that this was a massive opportunity, but we also knew that it also had to be more than just adjacencies," said Hankey. "We got to where we were as a team because of our cultures and our processes."
"It was a challenge, not an automatic win," she continued. "It really took a lot of time to try new things out and be a little bit outside our comfort zones."
"We care about making great products, but we've worked equally hard at making a great team and culture," added Dye. "A lot of that came from the beginning. Steve defined Apple by its design."
"We always remember him saying that design is not just a veneer. It's not just how things look, it's about how things work," he continued. "After three years, we couldn't believe more in the vision of having one central Design Team across all Apple products."
Alan Dye (blue top), discussing typography in an Apple Park meeting room
The full Wallpaper* interview touches on how this approach has benefited the design of products such as the Apple Watch. It also, though, reveals an Apple tradition.
"We have this tradition of making things for one another at Christmas," says Hankey. "It's about that joy of making and joy of giving. It's something that's come from the culture of the team."
Read on AppleInsider
View from a fourth floor corridor at Apple Park
Four years after Jony Ive described Apple Park to Wallpaper*, the publication has returned to learn how the completed building feels to its design staff. Evans Hankey, vice president of industrial design, and Alan Dye, vice president of human interface design, say that it's only after a few years that they've come to appreciate the building.
"It's just so quiet and calming," Hankey told Wallpaper*. "We never really understood what that would mean for us until we'd been here for a while. It's been designed for serendipitous meetings as well as collaboration."
The design team moved in to Apple Park three years ago, and the intention from the start was that the whole team would work together.
"We can have industrial designers sat next to a font designer," said Jony Ive back in 2017, "sat next to a sound designer, who is sat next to a motion graphics expert, who is sat next to a colour designer, who is sat next to somebody who is developing objects in soft materials."
Hankey and Dye say that this is exactly what has happened, but also that it took more work than had perhaps been imagined.
Evans Hankey (red top, behind iMacs) leads a design discussion in Apple Park
"We knew very much that this was a massive opportunity, but we also knew that it also had to be more than just adjacencies," said Hankey. "We got to where we were as a team because of our cultures and our processes."
"It was a challenge, not an automatic win," she continued. "It really took a lot of time to try new things out and be a little bit outside our comfort zones."
"We care about making great products, but we've worked equally hard at making a great team and culture," added Dye. "A lot of that came from the beginning. Steve defined Apple by its design."
"We always remember him saying that design is not just a veneer. It's not just how things look, it's about how things work," he continued. "After three years, we couldn't believe more in the vision of having one central Design Team across all Apple products."
Alan Dye (blue top), discussing typography in an Apple Park meeting room
The full Wallpaper* interview touches on how this approach has benefited the design of products such as the Apple Watch. It also, though, reveals an Apple tradition.
"We have this tradition of making things for one another at Christmas," says Hankey. "It's about that joy of making and joy of giving. It's something that's come from the culture of the team."
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
But I wouldn't want to work in one.
These three pictures at least convey the message of grand architecture, not comfortable work environment. The scale is too big, the scenes too stark, the surfaces too hard. The building was designed for Steve Jobs, and the stockholders to admire, not the person who needs to put in eight hours designing a battery mount, or writing code for a mouse driver. Just like the Cathedrals were designed for the Church Hierarchy, not the people who actually arrived on Sunday.
It's a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to work there.
The design constraints above pretty much entirely made cathedrals what they are and are all about meeting the needs of "people who actually arrived on Sunday". People didn't toil away for centuries making cathedrals purely to please some bishop.
They should go back to their creative roots and build 10,000 garages for employees to work out of.