Jony Ive leaving Apple? Jonathan Ive - designer with a capital D Jonathan Ive biography

Jony Ive

The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products

Scientific editor Stanislav Potemkin

Published with permission from Portfolio, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. and literary agency Andrew Nurnberg

© Leander Kahney, 2013 All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with the Portfolio, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

All rights reserved. No part of the electronic version of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet or corporate networks, for private or public use without the written permission of the copyright owner.

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To my wife Tracy and our children: Nadine, Milo, Olina and Lyla

After I first met Jony Ive, he carried my backpack all night.

Our paths crossed in 2003 at a party after Macworld Expo. I worked for Wired.com as a freelance journalist and knew full well that Jonathan Paul Ive was a rising star, one of the most famous designers in the world.

I was amazed that he agreed to talk to me.

We were pleasantly surprised to find out that both were British expats. Together with Heather, Joni's wife, we reminisced nostalgically about the pubs, great newspapers and the British music we miss so much. We also both loved beer. After a few pints I suddenly remembered that I was late for a meeting, jumped up and ran away, leaving my laptop bag behind.

Late at night, I unexpectedly met Joni at a hotel counter on the other side of town. To my amazement, I saw my backpack on his shoulder.

At the time, I was amazed that the famous designer would carry the bag of a forgetful reporter all night, but today I understand that such behavior is quite in his spirit. He's focused on his team and Apple. For Joni, work comes first, and when it comes to it, instead of “I,” he says “we.”

A few months later, in June 2003, I met him again at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. He stood next to Steve Jobs and showed off the Power Mac G5, a powerful personal computer in a stunning aluminum case. Joni was chatting with two formally dressed ladies from Apple's PR department. After Jobs' speech, I approached them.

Joni beamed and said, “Nice to meet you again!”

We shook hands and he very friendly asked how I was doing. I was embarrassed and didn't say anything about the backpack.

Then I came up and asked: “Could you say a few words for the article?” Representatives of the PR department shook their heads in unison - Apple has always been famous for its secrecy. But Joni replied, “Of course.”

He led me to a counter with a display model. I just wanted to hear a few words, but he talked very passionately for twenty minutes about his latest development. I even tried to interrupt him, but Joni couldn’t help himself, design is his passion.

The brushed aluminum body of the Power Mac G5 had a stealth-like feel. Army notes were in the spirit of the times. In those days, there was a megahertz war going on: Apple locked horns with Intel in a race for the fastest chips. Manufacturers touted pure computing power, and Apple was proud to have them. new car was the most productive on the market. But Joni wasn't talking about power.

He said the design concept for this project was simplicity. “It was really difficult. We wanted to get rid of everything unnecessary and leave only the essentials. Do we need this part? Can it be made to also perform the function of the other four? It was an exercise in simplification, but it makes the computer easier to produce and easier for people to work with.”

Clean up and simplify? This doesn't sound like the usual talk in the tech industry. Releasing new products, companies usually do not remove, but add bells and whistles. Joni declared something quite the opposite. Simplification was not a new approach - this is the basics of design. But in 2003, the world looked different. It was only later that I realized that on that June morning in San Francisco, Jony Ive had handed me a precious key to the secrets of Apple innovation, to the deep philosophy that allows the company to make breakthroughs and be one of the leading corporations in the world.

Undoubtedly, Steve Jobs knew how to “sell” the result to the public. But Ive's thinking and design prowess led to powerful breakthroughs that included the iconic iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad. As Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, he has become a force in shaping the information society and shaping the way we work, play and communicate with each other.

How did a dyslexic English art school graduate become the planet's leading technological innovator?

On the pages of this book we will meet a man obsessed with design, unpretentious in everyday life and at the same time a brilliant professional, whose brilliant ideas have changed our lives.

School years

The projector's hydraulics were so well adjusted that it folded almost silently. I saw Jonathan as a budding talent.

Ralph Tabberer

Legend has it that Chingford is the birthplace of the Sirloin steak. It is said that in the seventeenth century, King Charles II was so pleased with a banquet at a local estate that he knighted a large piece of meat and named it Sir Loin.

Another Chingford celebrity, Jonathan Paul Ive, was born much later, on February 27, 1967.

Chingford, a residential area on the north-east outskirts of London, is quiet and unassuming, and his son Jonathan grew up the same way.

Jony Ive's childhood was modest, but quite comfortable. His father, Michael John Ive, was a silversmith, and his mother, Pamela Mary Ive, was a psychotherapist. Two years after the birth of their son, they had a second child, daughter Alison.

Joni went to Chingford primary school. Eight years later, future football star David Beckham will go to the same school. At school, Joni was diagnosed with dyslexia. It was also discovered in his colleague, left-handed Steve Jobs.

Even as a little boy, Joni was keenly interested in how things worked. He was fascinated by the structure of things, he disassembled radios and tape recorders, he was intrigued by how they were made, how the parts fit together. But when he tried to put everything back together, it didn’t always work.

“I have always been interested in objects made by man,” he recalled in a 2003 interview at the London Design Museum. “As a child, I took apart everything I could get my hands on. This is how my interest in how these things are made, how they work, in form and material developed.”

Mike Ive encouraged his son's passion and regularly started conversations with him about design. “I didn’t think about the fact that these toys were designed by anyone, I wasn’t really interested in that,” Joni said in the same interview. And although the boy did not always understand the potential meaning behind his play, his father nurtured his interest in design throughout his childhood.

The designer of most Apple products, senior vice president Jonathan Ive, was a kindred spirit. He was not among the richest or most high-ranking people, but is considered one of the most influential as the creator of the design for the iPod.

Biography

Jonathan Ive was born in 1967 in London, where he spent his childhood and school years. He graduated from Newcastle Polytechnic University, where he studied art and design. He got married in 1987 and had two twins. He knew his business very well, so already in 1989 he got a job in a design company. Then his first principles began to take shape: work not for money, but to create a quality product. He was quickly noticed by management and became a co-owner of the company.

In 1992, Ive moved to San Francisco because he was invited to join Apple. At first, his work did not inspire him; the priority was only profit growth and optimization. No one thought about the design; everything was done hastily and thoughtlessly. As a result, the company released 55 low-grade products. With the return of Jobs, everything changed, and Jonathan Ive, a designer with a capital D, changed his mind about leaving the Apple corporation. Steve almost immediately noticed and appreciated his brilliant potential, making him a central figure in the creation of Apple product design. This is how the first multi-colored iMac appeared, which sold two million units in the first year.

Career at Apple

In 1997, Jonathan Ive received the position of vice president of industrial design at the Apple corporation. The original iMac premiere was followed by the presentation of a twenty-two-inch Apple laptop. In 2000 he became an honorary doctor at the university. At the same time, the Apple G4 Cube was launched. In 2002, iMac with articulated displays of 15 and 17 inches and eMac were launched. A year later, the lightest and thinnest laptop in the world (at that time), the PowerBook, premiered. In 2004, a mini iPod and a super-thin iMac G5 were released.

In 2005, Ive was promoted to senior vice president and introduced the mini-Mac. In the same year, the touch and touchscreen smartphone iPhone was released. He was awarded the order and knighted in 2012. Jonathan Ive came up with the design of the robot Eve for the cartoon "WALL-E". In 2010, the company introduced the Apple iPad tablet computer. From 2012 to 2013 worked on the design of iOS 7.

About human qualities

Jonathan, without exaggeration, is the father of almost all Apple products. They were kindred spirits with Steve Jobs, they were friends, they shared views on the world, although not without disagreements. Jobs often came to his creative studio- "glass cube". Jonathan Ive, Apple designer, is a very modest and shy person, immersed in his work. Many of the company's products, which include more than 200 patents, were originally invented and developed by Jobs and Ive. Jonathan had access to all the resources and almost as much power as Steve himself. According to Ive, the key to success is a cohesive team. They have been working together for a long time, understand each other perfectly, and know what the “best product” should be.

For all his stunning success, Jonathan Ive remained a very uncommunicative and secretive person. His main feature His character has always been shy, and he never discusses his personal life at all. Ive lives in California with his wife and children and regularly visits his native England. He loves techno music, knows how to dress with taste, has an Aston Martin, but is otherwise no frills. He had a love for fast cars for a long time, even getting into a car accident in his Aston.

As a student, Ive was involved in the design of watches and mobile phones. They turned out to be similar to modern devices: ultra-thin and thought out to the smallest detail.
After graduating from college, already working at Tangerine, he designed a toilet room, but the client refused original idea due to its high cost.
Jonathan's father was a famous silversmith who developed curriculum for design schools in England.
It was Ive who introduced the fashion for white; while still at school, he created white designer clothes. At first, Jobs was against white and only agreed to gray and black.
When a talented designer wanted to leave Apple, his boss promoted him and motivated him.
Jonathan likes to play techno and other music in the company studio, where many employees play football and skateboard.
Quince's personal studio - a "glass cube" - is equipped with a minimum of things, there is a table, a chair, a lamp, and there are not even family photographs. The cube is so simplified that employees cannot find the entrance when they first visit it.
The designer keeps all developments secret even from relatives. His children were not in his studio.
Ive does not aspire to high positions, and management aspects he doesn't care much.
It was Jonathan and his wife who were called to his room by Steve Jobs after the operation. He had a tumor removed from his pancreas.

Striving for simplicity

Jonathan Ive, a designer, doesn't like to spend his life expensive, but devotes his time to creating beautiful products that inspire users. The iMac computer, for example, has a reliable screen that moves in different directions, allowing you to work in any position. This mechanism was developed over 3 months of hard work.

Ive's love for simplicity and convenience was shared by Jobs. His main task the designer determined the creation of minimalistic devices that do not require instructions. He gets rid of everything unnecessary, leaving what is necessary. Jonathan believes that if the functions of four buttons can be combined into one, then so be it. Apple's goal is convenient devices and maximum simplification of production. Ive not only worked on the company's main line, but also created applications for gadgets. General views made Ive and Jobs close friends, which resulted in a fruitful collaboration.

The Idea Factory, where Ive spends a lot of his time, is a popular location in the campaign. It can be called the Californian heart of the Apple campus. This is not a simple studio where employees ride skateboards, throwing models and prototypes around, but also workplace world famous designer. New and interesting details about the work of this top-secret organization can be read in a recently published book.

Disagreements

Despite their strong friendship and mutual understanding, Jonathan and Steve did not always find agreement. In an interview for a future book about Jobs, Ive revealed previously unknown details. It turned out that Steve appropriated Jonathan's inventions, saying that he invented them himself, without mentioning the name Quince. He really didn't like that Jobs called his work his own. Jonathan was not greedy or ambitious, but rather fair.

Prospects

Jony Ive, whose biography confirms that he may in the future take the post of head of the Apple CEO department, was closest to Steve. But for a designer, creativity comes first, not money; his modest character is not at all suitable for high management. Essentially, Jonathan “carries” the company on himself. He develops beautiful designs for Apple products, striving to embody perfection and minimalism, and helps create gadgets that are true works of art. Many are inclined to believe that it was Jobs alone who pulled Apple out of near bankruptcy, but the heights and successes achieved would not have happened without Jony Ive.

What will happen to Apple without Ive? Today, one thing is clear: now Jobs is gone, and Ive’s power is only growing. Now he carries out industrial design not only of devices, but also of interfaces, software. However, Jonathan gets little attention, with the exception of videos about the launch of new products.

Conclusion

Jonathan Ive, from whose history it is known that he worked side by side with Steve Jobs for several years, participated in the creation of unique products. This creative union pulled Apple out of near bankruptcy and turned it into an international business. Today you can read two books about Jonathan Ive, published in 2006 and 2007. A modest man who did not like to appear in public, he created the highest standards of style, beauty and simplicity that have entered the lives of millions of people around the world.

Jony Ive loves racing cars, but in the early 2000s, this hobby almost cost him his life.

When Ive's career took off sharply, he bought an Aston Martin DB 9, but a month later he was in a terrible accident, his colleague was in the car with him. Both miraculously escaped death. After that incident, Apple significantly increased Quince's salary. In a way, this accident showed the company how much they needed him.

This is just one of many new details about Apple's notoriously secretive chief designer that can be found in the upcoming book: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products. The author of the book, Linder Kani, editor-in-chief of the website Cultofmac.com, conducted his own investigation, interviewing many former executives and ordinary employees of Apple. The unofficial biography sheds light on Ive's early life, early career, and even some run-ins with management at Apple.

Ive is one of the men who worked side by side with Steve Jobs for years, helping create the products that brought the company from near bankruptcy to one of the most powerful in the world. Now that Tim Cook is at the helm of Apple, Ive has not only remained in leading roles, but has also gained much more influence than before. Since 2012, he has been responsible not only for industrial design, but also for software design. However, Ive has always remained in the shadows, except for his occasional appearances in video presentations of new products.

Tim Cook may be the head of Apple, but its soul is Ive. And here's 10 unknown facts from the biography of the “soul of Apple”, which can be learned from the book by Linder Kani.

1. Just like my father. Mike Ive was a jeweler and taught jewelry making in college. It was he who instilled in his son a love of creating unique things, handmade and creativity.

2. Ive made it up Cell phones and even a watch (hint at iWatch?) while still in school. One of Johnny’s teachers recalls: “Back in high school he painted mobile phones that were thought out to the smallest detail, thin - like the ones we use now.”

3. One of his first projects after college was designing... a toilet. In 1989, Ive joined the start-up design firm Tangerine and was commissioned to design a toilet, bidet and sink. Unfortunately, the customer refused his services, as Quince’s project turned out to be too expensive for production.

4. Ive wanted to leave Apple shortly before Jobs returned to the company. John Rubinstein, who was Apple's vice president at the time, gave him a big raise and convinced him to stay. “We told him that we were going to fight and overcome all the difficulties, and that when we finally raised the company, it would go down in history,” says Rubinstein: “After repeating this endlessly, we still managed to keep him.”

5. Ive was one of those who instilled in Apple a love of white. Former Apple designer Doug Satzger said that at first Jobs was categorically against the use of white and agreed only to the moon gray shade. “The main thing that Johnny learned at the English design school was the use of white, and that’s what he gave to Apple.”

6. Johnny loves techno. Exactly this Musical direction often plays in Apple's top-secret design lab, which is described as a place of chaos, strange noises and designers skating and playing football.

7. He has his own office in a design lab, which is described as a "glass cube" inside which there is only a table, an armchair and a lamp. And no family photos. The studio where the designers work is securely hidden from prying eyes; even an executive of such a level as Scott Forstall, the former vice president of iOS, was not allowed to go inside.

8. Ive cannot tell his wife about what he is working on. this moment works. Also, unlike many of his colleagues at Apple, he never takes his children to work with him.

9. Ive was one of two people Steve Jobs wanted to see after surgery to remove a pancreatic tumor in 2004.

The second person was Jobs' wife, Lauren. 10. Those who work with Ive say he never wanted to become the head of Apple.

One former Apple designer told Kani, “Johnny was never interested in running a company. Only creativity” What do you think about Johnny's contribution to Apple world You? Would you like to read his biography? Or maybe you have something to add to this list? interesting facts

? Tell us in the comments. The personality of Jony Ive has become increasingly popular lately: sometimes it seems that the ambitious Briton, who recently received , is talked about no less than the legendary founder Apple Steve Jobs. Moving a little away from the designer’s personality, the publication’s journalists The Guardian

decided to make a list of the most interesting, in their opinion, products to which he was directly related. Let's add a little history to this.

PowerBook 140 (1991)

The first in the ranking of masterpieces was a gadget, the design of which Joni developed while not yet working at Apple. At that time, the company began placing orders for equipment design from third-party companies, and the choice of management fell on the British company Tangerine, where the young designer worked. By modern standards, the device looks rather clunky, but twenty-odd years ago everything was completely different - the device became a benchmark for the industry, setting the bar for competing manufacturers. By the way, Ive himself left Tangerine under funny circumstances. The fact is that the plumbing company Ideal Standard did not appreciate the Briton’s bold project, calling the bathroom of his design “too expensive” and “too modern.” Apple Corporation was clearly not afraid of such prospects, and already in 1992 Ive moved to Cupertino.

The newcomer’s research did not end with a laptop that was cutting-edge for its era. In the late 90s of the 20th century, he returned to Apple, and despite the title of interim CEO, the company’s founder immediately moved to decisive measures to “save drowning people.” According to Jobs, the products of those times were simply disgusting, and this was one of the main problems of the brand. Perhaps the iMac is worthy of a separate description, because it not only marked Apple's long-awaited return to big market PC, but also popularized the prefix “i”, which became a regular name for future Cupertino hits. By the way, Jobs himself wanted to call the new product “MacMan,” and the name iMac was suggested by an employee named Ken Segal. In his opinion, the letter was associated with the words “Internet,” “individuality,” and “innovation,” which the manager certainly liked. Success was not long in coming - the new model made it possible to revive Mac sales, which had almost dropped to catastrophic levels. Ive's original computer design not only set it apart from its monotonous competitors, but also helped it become part of the popular culture of the time. Joni provided as many as five different colors for the case, which, among other things, was also transparent. The machine was produced in a monoblock form factor, was equipped with a built-in 14-inch CRT monitor and was built on the Power PC architecture (G3 processor); as a complete set operating system Mac OS 8 was running, and subsequently the computer received an update to . An interesting fact: in the iMac, Apple abandoned some of the usual features like the floppy drive (in favor of CD) or special connectors for connecting a keyboard and mouse (in favor of USB), which caused bewilderment among critics. As we see, the situation is not new - in different time skeptics regretted optical drives, wired modems and other things gradually forgotten by most users. By the way, the next generation iMac with the G4 index is also recognized as a design standard and even received the affectionate nickname “Jobs’ Lamp.”

iPod (2001)

The music industry is another world where Apple has created its own revolution. Of course, Joni also had a hand in it, who proposed an innovative design for branded players. It is noteworthy that Ive worked on the pocket player project even before it was officially approved by Apple management. Contrary to popular belief, the ClickWheel touch wheel of the new models, which later became the symbol of the iPod and a favorite element of counterfeit manufacturers, was not invented by Joni (the development itself belonged to Synaptics). However, the bright design and convenient shape of the new gadget, which customers liked so much, belong to the pen of a brilliant Briton.

iOS 7 (2013)

Let's fast forward to today and see what Jony got up to after being assigned software design by Apple executives. It would seem that moving on to a completely new activity is a non-trivial task even for a guru, but Ive’s decision arrived in time, and by the time the seventh version was released, the public was enthusiastically discussing the “refreshed” system interface. Instead of outdated skeuomorphic elements that imitated objects real world, Joni proposed a modern “flat” approach that fit perfectly into Apple’s overall concept of minimalism. Obvious innovations also affected navigation in the menu, where convenient gestures appeared for switching between screens. By the way, few people remember that at the time of the release of the fifth version (2011), statements were often made in the specialized press about the “aging” iOS interface, which supposedly looked ridiculous in comparison with more “modern” competitors. Well, later the rivals themselves switched to flat design, abandoning volume and gradients with a difference of several years. Of course, it is not surprising that not everyone liked the striking differences, but Ive can hardly be blamed for this. After all, the designer was only one of the first to catch a new trend in the industry, which later became decisive in one way or another.

iPhone 6 (2014)

The hit parade of Joni's creations is completed by a gadget whose success can impress even the most stubborn skeptics. The eighth and sixth generation of Apple's branded smartphone became available in almost six months and further strengthened the Cupertino team's position in the telecommunications market. The company calls the device the most serious change in the entire history of the line, and there are good reasons for this even in terms of aesthetics - two models received larger screen diagonals, an updated design and are thin even by standards modern industry metal cases. Gesture navigation, mentioned in the previous paragraph, was clearly a way to make it easier to work with a larger display, which once again demonstrates Apple's meticulous approach to its own innovations. In total, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have sold 120 million units worldwide, becoming some of the most popular smartphones of our time.