Charles Martin
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.
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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10 Comments
Yes, apart from Jony Ive's deep, monotone voice, it was a very interesting listen. I didn't like his choice of music, other than the recording of his 5 year old son (a first of Desert Island Discs), but that is what Desert Island Discs is all about. Discovery!
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.
Follow the link to the $60,000 turntable. If you dig around on the site, you realize that Ive's contribution was a) a lid with a nice hinge (the normal models--still costing thousands or tens of thousands of dollars--don't include a lid) and b) a nifty power button. What I find shocking, is that none of the new models (even ones costing over $30,000) include either of these options. You can "build your own" turntable with things like $4,000 machined aluminum brackets (which look like they could be machined for $20 or much, much less), but you can't add a lid or get the cool button. (Comments about Apple's design and pricing decisions omitted.)
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.
If Ive ran Apple we'll get minimalist designs with minimal functionality, like the weird early ways we charged the Apple Pencil, its lack of an eraser, hockey puck mouse, flipping a mouse over to charge it. Ive tends to lean more on looks than functionality, he rarely balances the two. But I do love the focus on quality, some of my favorites are the Apple Cube and its monitor, original iMac, desk lamp iMac, and original MacBook Air.
Everyone agrees that Sir Johnny is one of the most relevant industrial designer of the era, however, it’s necessary that we comment on his most disgusting blunder, his “Achille’s heel” so to speak: the lousy laptop power adapter’s cable joint.