Jony Ive is no longer consulting for Apple

Posted:
in General Discussion edited November 2022
Apple and Ive's design firm, LoveFrom, are no longer working together, with both parties choosing not to extend the existing contract.

Jony Ive
Jony Ive


Jony Ive left Apple in 2019 to create his own independent design consultancy, LoveFrom, following nearly three decades at the company.

However, Ive continued to work closely with Apple in the following years, confirming that the two companies were still working together in 2021.

However, according to The New York Times, the companies decided not to renew their contract. While it's unclear precisely what caused the split, chances are neither party was pleased with the current deal.

After all, Ive's design firm had a habit of poaching designers from Apple.

Additionally, Apple executives were concerned over how much the company paid Ive.

And it was likely that Ive had grown tired of dealing with Apple. While working with Apple, LoveFrom wasn't allowed to work on any projects deemed competitive to Apple.

It was learned recently that Ive had left Apple burnt out and tired in the wake of CEO Tim Cook's numerous structural changes.

Read on AppleInsider
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 75
    darkvaderdarkvader Posts: 1,146member
    GOOD!

    His early stuff wasn't awful.  Everything he's touched for the last 15+ years has been.
    lam92103thinkman100000000Alex1Npulseimageskillroytechconcmacxpressravnorodom
  • Reply 2 of 75
    premipremi Posts: 6member
    I miss Johnny, his voice over the products were wonderful. I still wish he had taken over as CEO. Way better than Tim as a communicator. 
    9secondkox2dk49aegean
  • Reply 3 of 75
    lam92103lam92103 Posts: 122member
    darkvader said:
    GOOD!

    His early stuff wasn't awful.  Everything he's touched for the last 15+ years has been.

    It's like he forgot that people buy products in order to use them, not just for looking at them. A good designer needs to blend both. Looking good while being fully functional
    sconosciutoAlex1N9secondkox2MisterKitmuthuk_vanalingampulseimagesbeowulfschmidtradarthekatblastdoorScot1
  • Reply 4 of 75
    netroxnetrox Posts: 1,415member
    It's time to let him go for good. 

    I wish the UX would be more clear and intuitive and he literally made the iOS 7 difficult. There's so much cognitive burden. It's too flat. It's difficult to intuitively discover.

    But I see the refinements over time and every iteration, the cognitive burden becomes lighter and lighter. 


    mangakatten9secondkox2CheeseFreezeradarthekathammeroftruthkillroytechconc
  • Reply 5 of 75
    JWSCJWSC Posts: 1,203member
    As a singular focal point of Apple leadership, Steve needed Jony’s inspiration and design talent to march forward with innovative new products.

    By all appearance Tim Cook manages by group consensus.  Tim, and his leadership team, recognize that design is important.  But it’s not Tim’s passion like it was to Steve.

    Steve was an iconoclast, a maverick, and rule breaker.  But he is gone and there’s no re-creating him.  Apple’s leadership team have no choice but to run Apple with the skills and passions that they have available to them.  The Steve and Jony show, great as it was, is a bygone era for Apple that can never return.

    So, a toast to what was, and a second toast to better things to come for both Apple and Jony.
    Alex1NtheirongiantFileMakerFellerjony0chasmMisterKitwelshdogbestkeptsecretmuthuk_vanalingamJinTech
  • Reply 6 of 75
    darkvader said:
    GOOD!

    His early stuff wasn't awful.  Everything he's touched for the last 15+ years has been.
    EXACTLY, however, I was never thrilled with his designs from the start. His belief that function follows form is entirely antithetical to good design and human engineering. I was delighted when Ives left and was a bit concerned that there was still a connection between Love From (what a god-awful name unless you're a greeting card company or a florist) and Apple. I believe that since Job's death, Ives has been content to receive a paycheck despite doing next to nothing for Apple. Jonny, don't let the door……………………!
    edited July 2022 Alex1N9secondkox2radarthekatkillroytechconc
  • Reply 7 of 75
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    darkvader said:
    GOOD!

    His early stuff wasn't awful.  Everything he's touched for the last 15+ years has been.
    Yeah... all that junk he touched that resulted in the fastest and highest AAPL.  Right?  All those countless Apple customers for the past 15+ years buying all those products when they shouldn't have.

    Keep doing your revisionist stuff.  Maybe someday someone will believe you.
    CluntBaby92Alex1N9secondkox2Beatssconosciutojony0chasmbestkeptsecretAndy.Hardwakeradarthekat
  • Reply 8 of 75
    DuhSesameDuhSesame Posts: 1,278member
    Just your daily golden comment from Goldvador.  I guess Apple make money for 15+ years by building junks.
    9secondkox2sconosciutoJapheyradarthekatroundaboutnow
  • Reply 9 of 75
    payecopayeco Posts: 580member
    darkvader said:
    GOOD!

    His early stuff wasn't awful.  Everything he's touched for the last 15+ years has been.
    Eh, the unibody MacBook/Air/Pro were released during that time period and I’d say those were probably the biggest revolution in laptop design of the last 20 years. Every manufacturer on the planet tried to copy those designs. Intel created a design program and tech specification to help manufacturers clone the MacBook Air. 
    9secondkox2Beatssconosciutojony0chasmretrogustoAndy.Hardwakeradarthekatkillroyroundaboutnow
  • Reply 10 of 75
    JWSCJWSC Posts: 1,203member
    darkvader said:
    GOOD!

    His early stuff wasn't awful.  Everything he's touched for the last 15+ years has been.
    You remember that old saying that it’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt?  Well, take a hint.
    sconosciutojony0chasmradarthekatappleuseryeahmike1buzdotsroundaboutnowgrandact73
  • Reply 11 of 75
    I took someone’s advice and blocked darkvader. I highly recommend you all do the same!
    chasmmike1stevenozroundaboutnowgrandact73
  • Reply 12 of 75
    BeatsBeats Posts: 3,073member
    Every knockoff Apple product tried to mimic Apple because of Jony. From the Samsung Galaxy iPhoneys to the MateBook Pro and those pathetic Huawei knockoff AirPods.

    Unless someone is better than Jony at Apple, this is sad. I hope it’s not a personal thing between Tim and Jony.

    Jony Ive was quite literally the best industrial designer in history. I put Dieter Rams at #2 and Rams himself said Ive was way better than himself because he never had lines of people waiting to buy his products!
    retrogustoradarthekatkillroy
  • Reply 13 of 75
    bloggerblogbloggerblog Posts: 2,462member
    I took someone’s advice and blocked darkvader. I highly recommend you all do the same!
    You gotta be able to handle a different perspective 
    muthuk_vanalingamkillroyAlex1N
  • Reply 14 of 75
    9secondkox29secondkox2 Posts: 2,666member
    Sad, sad day. 

    Jony defined Apple. He was also one half of what WAS Apple. He intrinsically understood great design and how to get it made. 

    The man is a genius. He was tasked with impossible burdens and made it look easy and cool. 

    Ive brought Ape back from nothing with his revolutionary iMacs, notebooks, monitor and and tower designs - taking boring PCs and making them ultra desirable and iconic. What once was something that crunched numbers was now a statement piece as well. He made computers cool. 

    Then he followed up with titanium and aluminum computers that looked and felt like premium engineering and set Apple products up far above the pedestrian competition - his notebook designs are copied to this day. 

    Then he perfected it with the unheard of unibody process, making thin and light notebooks as sturdy and durable as possible. 

    Then he revolutionized the world with the iPod and cool earbuds that instantly made everything else uncool. 

    Then he revolutionized the world again with the iPhone, completely changing phone design into the landscape we have now. Everyone’s phone looks like jony’s now. 

    Then he showed the world how to do a proper tablet. 

    His iMacs have been the stuff of legends. 

    Sure there are a couple of extremely rare misses where the apple board wasn’t clear in its vision and that affected say the 2016 MacBook lineup with a port selection that the rest of apples products went back on, an ambitious keyboard invention that wasn’t quite there, but that’s nothing. The man isn’t perfect and cannot save the world every time. But he certainly has far more to brag about -if he were so inclined -  than literally anyone else in his field. 

    He was the right guy at the right place. He had the vision, the gifting, and the steadfast ability to see things through - and then do it all over again. 

    Apple without Jony is just simply less. The best they can do now is to carry on his designs as if he were still there. Thankfully we’ve had him at least consulting up to now. Hopefully some of the new team continue to take inspiration from him and continue where he left off, not try to depart for the sake of giving him the middle finger, and turn iconic design into crap. 

    Wish Apple would have given him something like a two year sabbatical to recharge instead of wear the guy down with the constant process changes - or even better, stopped trying to “fix” what clearly wasn’t broken. Ive had something that worked extremely well. Messing with that for the sake of agenda just wasn’t helpful in that area. 

    Here’s to hoping that a peacemaker finds their way into restoring this unfortunate breakup. 
    edited July 2022 JWSCretrogustoAndy.HardwakeradarthekatBeatsmeterestnz
  • Reply 15 of 75
    bloggerblogbloggerblog Posts: 2,462member
    What was missing from Ives late designs is a transitional phase, you can’t pull another USB success story as the iMac, the current offerings were also good and well established. Times are different, and you cannot sell Apple watches which will become obsolete at the price of timeless mechanical ones. 
    firelock
  • Reply 16 of 75
    In many ways, this is not news. The fact that Apple is now on a trajectory to make all of their products look identical is not something that Steve or Jony would have come up with. I for one think each product should have distinct look and feel reflective of its purpose and target audience. The MacBook Air has had a unique wedge shape design for 17 years. That shape was iconic and Apple. Now, other than the fact that the Air comes in different colors, it looks exactly like the other MacBook Pro. Nothing different. Nothing unique. Nothing to make it stand out. Nothing that says pick me up and use me. I hate hold my iPhone 13 and my iPad Pro when they are not in a case because I find the flat edge to be very uncomfortable. Design and Apple were synonymous because of Steve and Jony. Now that Jony has no influence on Apple design, the Apple and the products we all knew and loved will be no more.
    9secondkox2
  • Reply 17 of 75
    chasmchasm Posts: 3,275member
    My guess would be that the last two projects Love From worked on were the current M1 iMac (which everyone completely raves about) and (guessing) the new MacBook Air, which everyone is raving about.

    I have great confidence in Apple’s current in-house design team, and clearly the company does too — since they’ve let the contract lapse. Not worried about the future, loved a lot of what Ive’s team did also.
    MisterKitradarthekat
  • Reply 18 of 75
    CheeseFreezeCheeseFreeze Posts: 1,247member
    netrox said:
    It's time to let him go for good. 

    I wish the UX would be more clear and intuitive and he literally made the iOS 7 difficult. There's so much cognitive burden. It's too flat. It's difficult to intuitively discover.

    But I see the refinements over time and every iteration, the cognitive burden becomes lighter and lighter. 


    I agree that “affordance” is an issue with Apple. It’s a UX concept where an element looks like how it’s supposed to be used. 
    For example, the door handles on a Tesla S/X are amazing; they extend and invite to be pulled when you get closed. They look like things to be grabbed and pulled. No doubt how to use them. In contrast, the Tesla 3-series handles are not great. They are contracted and you need to awkwardly push them to open.

    With macOS, for example they changed buttons to look like icons, while they used to look like buttons before they moved to a flat design. Some elements are hidden and hard to discover. Similar issues in iOS.
    But fortunately we got rid of the awkward skeuomorphism as well.
    radarthekat
  • Reply 19 of 75
    CheeseFreezeCheeseFreeze Posts: 1,247member
    In many ways, this is not news. The fact that Apple is now on a trajectory to make all of their products look identical is not something that Steve or Jony would have come up with. I for one think each product should have distinct look and feel reflective of its purpose and target audience. The MacBook Air has had a unique wedge shape design for 17 years. That shape was iconic and Apple. Now, other than the fact that the Air comes in different colors, it looks exactly like the other MacBook Pro. Nothing different. Nothing unique. Nothing to make it stand out. Nothing that says pick me up and use me. I hate hold my iPhone 13 and my iPad Pro when they are not in a case because I find the flat edge to be very uncomfortable. Design and Apple were synonymous because of Steve and Jony. Now that Jony has no influence on Apple design, the Apple and the products we all knew and loved will be no more.
    Yeah, you have a point. Recently I hooked up my iPad to macOS (I forgot the name of it) so my mouse cursor seamlessly flows from desktop to desktop.
    Result: confusion. It looks the same but does not behave the same. I have a macOS expectation on iPad and vice versa.
    I hoped they’d chosen an overarching design language but within a distinct ‘per operating system’ language. 
    It’s in the uncanny valley now. 
    This problem will only get worse over time unless Apple ends up with one operating system that can run on all devices.
    radarthekat
  • Reply 20 of 75
    humbug1873humbug1873 Posts: 121member
    Jony was out for a long time.
    To be provocative: When was the last time Apple made some big mistake that's largely due to design and product thinness. The 2016 Macbook. That design was probably fixed a year before (2015), since then Ive is (mentally) elsewhere.

    Since then Apple stopped risking things in product design. Which I think is bad. If you don't risk you no longer impress. That's what happened at Apple. They no longer push the envelope further. The latest (totally boring looking) Air is proof of that. I think that is sad and will damage Apple in the long term bigger than any design flaw did in the past.

    Yes we probably won't see another 'innovation' like the butterfly keyboard. But we probably won't see innovation, like the Unibody Laptop designs, flat panel all in one computer (started by Spartacus) etc either. New innovations will probably come from the bean counters: 'Let's make it cheaper to manufacture, looks are not important'. I would rather like to see Apple fail once in a while to over-design, than to bore people to death with 'things as usual'.

    Tim knows that himself: While Steve always lead up to the new designs and generated excitement in his keynotes. Tim shows the 'product' up front and continues with lot's of techno bubble and costs. While Steve concentrated on 'how this will imrpove your live', Tim concentrates on lists and numbers.

    The company will execute well based on the momentum generated by Jony and Steve (at that time Apple was always ahead of the curve), but no momentum has come after that. So enjoy it while it lasts.
    9secondkox2JWSCFred257Alex1N
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