Jony Ive's lifetime of design work honored with Edison Achievement Award

Jony Ive

LoveFrom and ex-Apple chief designer Jony Ive has been given the Edison Awards' most prestigious honor, in a ceremony in Florida.

Ive left Apple in 2019, reportedly following frustration at culture changes within the company. He did, however, continuing consulting for Apple until 2022.

Sir Jonathan Ive was presented the Edison Achievement award for his work across Apple, plus his own LoveFrom firm. It was presented by Wendell Weeks, CEO of Corning, which is best known for making glass for the iPhone.

Wendell said that Ive is "trying to make our lives just a little bit better," and "you should see what he's got on the drawing board... some of the best stuff yet."

In receiving the award, Ive thanked Wendell and the Edison Awards Steering Committee.

"Wendell lives and understands the creative process," said Ive. "In the middle of an unpredictable, often messy and painful journey, he has, on countless occasions, reminded me of why we do this. Not how - but why."

"Our motivation is indicative of our values, it describes who we are," he continued. "Our motivation is also our fuel. Our determination, our resolve our focus is fueled by what motivates."

"I can think of no motivation more powerful than wanting to serve and support humanity," said Ive. "The truth is, if I were doing this just for me I would be doing it badly if at all."

Ive also referred to Steve Jobs, and specifically to an email Jobs once sent him that is now in the "Make Something Wonderful" book by the Steve Jobs Archive. It's the email that includes the line, "I love and admire my species, living and dead, and am totally dependent on them for my life and well being."

"Every time I read that email," said Ive at the awards ceremony, "its truth and humility slows time, quietens some of the noise and puts my trivial preoccupations in their place."

"Instead of staring at my feet it helps me raise my head remembering my true motivation and it leaves me feeling only grateful," he concluded.

Ive and his LoveFrom team most recently redesigned the UK"s famous Red Nose for the Comic Relief charity, and the royal emblem for King Charles.

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5 Comments

Rogue01

said about 1 year ago

Ive is "trying to make our lives just a little bit better,"

Unfortunately, the round hockey puck mouse and butterfly keyboard made our lives just a little bit more frustrating. Not everything he designed was a winner. Now that he is gone, Apple can make MacBooks that have reliable keyboards that work.

chasm

said about 1 year ago

Rogue01 said:

Unfortunately, the round hockey puck mouse and butterfly keyboard made our lives just a little bit more frustrating. Not everything he designed was a winner. Now that he is gone, Apple can make MacBooks that have reliable keyboards that work.

I have had a butterfly keyboard since 2019, and used it to type literally hundreds of thousands of words with no issues whatsoever, and this has also been the experience of most users of the butterfly keyboards — based on research from Apple Stores and other repair facility reports, which showed only a slight uptick in keyboard repair issues from the butterfly design. Mine continues to work perfectly to this day.

As noted in the article, Ive was also around for, and likely had a hand in, the replacement for the butterfly keyboard. As the awful hockey puck mouse showed, even geniuses can make mistakes — something Jobs knew very well.

It’s a pity more people don’t have the humility and insight that Jobs acquired and nurtured in his later life.

Marvin

said about 1 year ago

Rogue01 said:

Not everything he designed was a winner.

Nobody said everything was and most of the failed designs were quickly removed/replaced. Ive's designs vastly improved personal devices for over 3 billion people. That alone is worth a lifetime achievement award. Without Ive's designs for Macs and mobile devices over the years, there might never have been any kind of interest in Apple products that would lead to forums of people talking (and complaining) about them.

jony0

said about 1 year ago

Marvin said:

Rogue01 said:

Not everything he designed was a winner.

Nobody said everything was and most of the failed designs were quickly removed/replaced. Ive's designs vastly improved personal devices for over 3 billion people. That alone is worth a lifetime achievement award. Without Ive's designs for Macs and mobile devices over the years, there might never have been any kind of interest in Apple products that would lead to forums of people talking (and complaining) about them.

Yes unfortunately there will always be the complainers, who will jump straight to the odd missteps while bypassing a lifetime of great accomplishments.

Calamander

said about 1 year ago

Rogue01 said:

Ive is "trying to make our lives just a little bit better,"

Unfortunately, the round hockey puck mouse and butterfly keyboard made our lives just a little bit more frustrating. Not everything he designed was a winner. Now that he is gone, Apple can make MacBooks that have reliable keyboards that work.

I agree with the keyboard disaster, however... Apple has the ugliest hardware lineup since 2000 when Jobs came back.

Nothing they designed post Ive is even remotely attractive. The 2019 "return of the MacBook Pro" MacBook pro was perfect in terms of size, only a tiny bit bigger but so much better than the ones that came before it. The M1 MBP was and is humongous and an affront to design - sorry but even PC makers look better than that, ie Razer Blade 15 and probably a few others too.

It is practical but cramming the XDR display in this thing was a massive mistake, XDR is not suitable for mobile devices. The display is thick, adding an entire MacBook Air to the size of the MBP. It gets crazy hot and it uses all your battery - for what?

We can't even use the full brightness XDR is capable of - because it gets too hot and uses too much battery. That's what I learned from using Vivid - I've now turned it off even though I paid for it, the engineering reason it's not running at 1,000 nits of brightness is that it gets too hot and lasts 1 hour on battery, basically.

Anyway long story short, Apple needs to get Jony Ive back.

iPhones since the 12 have been an affront to the eyes. They look like a generic Android phone. Macs are on the road to becoming ugly. MacBook Pro is the fattest it's ever been. MacBook Air too - thanks to huge feet it looks the same size as the 14" MBP. Ew all across the board - with the M series chips Apple could make revolutionary devices, but they decided to screw it all up...