Jonathan Ive: “Golden hand” with Steve Jobs brought Apple to revive

Tram Ho

Jony Ive, or rather we should call this British designer by the right name, Mr. Jonathan Ive KBE, born on February 27, 1967 in London, England. The days of working under the roof of Apple helped him create an empire with devices that not only possessed the power and hardware speed, but also the industrial aesthetic beauty rarely seen in technology villages.

A few hours ago, there was information that Jony Ive left his position at Apple to open LoveForm, an independent design company. Replacing Ive’s position will be Evans Hankey and Alan Dye. LoveForm’s first customer is Apple, when LoveForm’s designers will work directly with Apple’s chief executive, Jeff Williams.

Perhaps it won’t be redundant, if we look back at Jony Ive’s journey. There is no shortage of content about Jony Ive on the internet, from interviews, autobiographical articles, or even a whole book of “The Genius behind Apple products” published in 2013. Perhaps the most worth reading is still the Smithsonian article published in December 2017.

When Jony Ive was still a boy, his father, a university professor of design and technology, and a goldsmith, gave him a bizarre gift, a deal. Ive recalled: “The deal says, if I take the time to decide to do something and develop them with drawings, I will agree to take me to the university practice room and create it.” For years, the father and son created furniture, a cart-cart and details for the tree house, practicing how to work with wood and metal. “From the first day, I remember that I love drawing and making things.”

Since then, Jony Ive continues his work, creating the most beloved technology items in the world.

The former director of Apple’s design is probably the closest person to the late CEO Steve Jobs. Years after the departure of the famous director, Ive became one of the two most important people of the company considered the world’s largest value, the other is CEO Tim Cook. Among the technology corporations that laid the foundation for changing the twenty-first century, besides Google, Facebook and Amazon, only Apple depends on selling equipment they design and manufacture themselves. And Ive’s mark is everywhere, every product has an Apples logo, from Apple Store stores with minimal light, to iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch, and also a HomePod speaker.

One thing is for sure, an artist’s brain has never changed for Jony Ive. He always tries to create things that are not only beautiful but also great. After graduating from high school, he studied industrial fine arts at Newcastle Polytechnic University. With Ive, drawings are not only the way a person expresses himself, but also the way dialogue is between inspiration and possibilities. “Gradually, the lines on my drawing became sparse. Sometimes it’s just part of an item. Then the idea gradually ran back and forth in thinking, bringing a new drawing to create the idea. I’ve been working like this for a long time. ”

The Ring, Apple’s headquarters building in Cupertino, California, is also a work of Ive. A giant glass circle surrounds the trees both inside and outside the headquarters. Ive spent five years working with British architect Norman Foster to form almost every detail, from 900 curved glass panels to wall enclosures, to lift buttons like the home button on an old iPhone. and made from scratched aluminum like the MacBook itself.

Inside the building an afternoon of golden autumn in the sun, the building space was illuminated by sunlight, especially the 4-storey canteen for 700 people. The glass is used to the maximum to erase the difference between inside and outside the building. But perhaps, the area with the best view is the design department. The studio was very large, and Ive was excited about the area, because its potential was no different from what he had been doing and drawing things in his father’s university practice room.

For the first time, Ive has enough space for hundreds of Apple designers, and the idea is simple, that is to make all designers work directly with each other. From hardware design, industrial art, graphic and font experts, to computer interfaces, you have to touch each other to create inspiration and think of new directions. Several CNC machines were placed there to create a test version. “I think you will only understand a material and its potential if you work on it yourself. And the most important moment is when you create the first prototype. We may or may not like it, but that is the moment that makes you change. ”

One of the truths in the design industry is that it takes a lot of effort to create an easy-to-use item, and almost no company is determined to implement that truth like Apple. This mindset dates back to the time of Steve Jobs, who tried to help his engineers and designers understand that users need not only equipment, but also experiences, information, services, applications, and Another possibility of that device. You can drive the topic by viewing smartphones as a time consuming and addictive thing, but you can’t ignore the fact that Apple, Steve Jobs and the iPhone have created our world today.

And then the iPhone X was born, with the same quality as Apple wanted. From the hardware, to the front glass to the back of the device, creating a perfect curve that embraces the steel frame of the phone. Apple is not always the first company to adopt a new technology before all competitors, but they always know how to perfect that technology to have an advantage over competitors. “That is what inspires us for many years.”

Not all Apple products are well received. The first version of the Apple Watch was released, which was the first product Ive designed for itself without the help of Steve Jobs. And it became the subject of uninterrupted debates. Wall Street Journal said “smartwatch is finally reasonable”, but Gizmodo said that “maybe not buy”. Then the Apple Watch interface is really confusing. But then Series 3 and 4 came out, perfecting the user experience.

Apple and I know how to adapt. They realized that they forgot the smartwatch as a great health and movement monitoring tool. They invite Nike to be a partner, and now Apple Watch becomes the highest-selling watch in the world. Ive said: “We don’t have to do anything perfect. As designers, you always have to learn and learn a lot. ”

During nearly 30 years of working at Apple, Jony Ive has contributed to creating great products in terms of design, aesthetics and features. From the 1998 iMac with a colorful transparent shell, which has helped Apple profit since 1995 with 2 million units sold only that year, to PowerBooks and later MacBooks. Then came the iPod in 2011 and the iPhone in 2007. Ive won many design awards, by the way, the Queen of England awarded the knight in 2012.

According to Smithsonian
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Source : tinhte.vn