Behind Apple’s products is longtime design chief Jony Ive

“Steve Jobs has been Apple’s most recognizable personality, but much of its cachet comes from its clean, inviting designs,” Rachel Metz reports for The Associated Press. “For that, Apple can credit its head designer, Jonathan Ive.”

“Ive, a self-effacing 44-year-old Brit, helped Jobs bring Apple back from the brink of financial ruin with the whimsical iMac computer, whose original models came in bright colors at a time when bland shades dominated the PC world,” Metz reports. “He later helped transform Apple into a consumer electronics powerhouse and the envy of Silicon Valley with the iPod, the iPhone and, most recently, the iPad.”

Metz reports, “Ive, known to his friends as ‘Jony,’ has led Apple’s design team since the mid-’90s. Working closely with Jobs, Ive has built a strong legacy at Apple, ushering in products that are sleek and stylish, with rounded corners, few buttons, brushed aluminum surfaces and plenty of slick glass.”

Read more in the full article here.
 

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]

21 Comments

  1. I don’t think there’s another company in the world that would give Jony the freedom to innovate in the way he does.
    There would always be some idiot poking his nose in and trying to influence his designs.

    1. Yep mr Dell you are so correct and apple is still not taking that wonderful advise of cashing out the stock and just giving it back to the shareholders … As you and I both no mr Dell apple will blow thru that 75 BILLION AND BACKPEDDLE TECHNOLOGY GOING BACK TO IT’S ROOTS AND FINNALY LISTENING TO THE REAL KING OF Engineering bill gates and put a physical keyboad and a pen type stylus to iPhone .. Now that is the future (:

  2. if this guy doesn’t get along with cook, don’t be surprised he takes his wealth and move back to his home country. When that happens sell your stock. Apple will probably go back to the days of designing computers like the performa series

        1. This will be the 3rd stint (or 4th, depending how you’re counting) where Cook was acting or defacto CEO with these guys. I think they’re comfortable with each other and have formed a tight unit.

  3. “For that, Apple can credit its head designer, Jonathan Ive.”

    Rachel Metz has obviously never studied the design process that goes on inside Apple.

    Steve Jobs and Jony Ive have led the teams and contributed greatly to the innovation and standards they adhere to. But, there are dozens of guys in the loop of a product design to do all the absolutely necessary tests, trials, remakes, new rapid prototypes, and electrical and software modeling that needs to get done to make a top product.

    I am confident Jony would admit the contributions of dozens of his compatriots inside the design group, if he was allowed to do so.

    Every designer builds on the successes and failures of both competitor’s products and their own initial failures. That is the only way forward. It gets done over and over until it is right.

    1. The article is ignorant, correct: Jobs himself can be credited for design in even bigger way than Ive. For example, Steven himself was primary designer of such products as iMac (two generations) and PowerBook Titanium, among more than three hundred patents in which he participated.

      However, this is not to say that Ive does not deserve the credit. This is just to say that Jobs deserves it no less.

  4. Well, now that Tim Cook has been awarded 1M Apple shares, let’s award a substantial number (250K ?) to Ive. And to a few other key players within the company.

    What better way to continue down the path that Steve charted than to keep his team intact.

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