Sigh! Nearly 8 years after Jobs' death, Apple has lost another soul figure

Recently, Apple announced on its official website that the company's chief design officer Jony Ive (also known as Jonathan Ive) will leave the company later this year to establish his own design company LoveFrom; at that time, Jony Ive will continue to maintain a close cooperative relationship with Apple.

[[269177]]

A loss worth at least $9 billion

Regarding Jony Ive's departure, Apple CEO Tim Cook said:

• Jony is a leading figure in the design field, and his role in Apple's resurgence cannot be overstated, from the breakthrough iMac in 1998 to the iPhone to Apple Park, where he put a lot of energy and thought.

Jony Ive also responded, saying:

• I've been at Apple for nearly 30 years and have worked on countless projects, but what I'm most proud of is that we have created a world-class design team, process, and culture. Today, this team is stronger, more vibrant, and more talented than at any time in Apple's history.

[[269178]]

Apple has not yet announced Jony Ive's successor.

During this period, Evans Hankey, head of the design team, and Alan Dye, vice president of industrial design and human-computer interaction design, will report to Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer, during the transition period. Jony Ive also expressed his confidence in these colleagues and believed that they would lead the team to thrive.

From the outside world's perspective, Jony Ive's departure is a loss of at least $9 billion for Apple; after Apple announced the news of Jony Ive's impending departure, its stock price fell by more than 1% in after-hours trading.

The two people have almost the same understanding of the world

Leifeng.com learned that Jony Ive is a typical British man. In his early years, he studied industrial design at the University of Northumbria (then known as Newcastle Polytechnic, changed to its current name in 1992) in the UK; he graduated in 1989.

After graduation, he co-founded a design consulting company called Tangerine in London; soon after, in 1992, he came to the United States and joined Apple. By 1997, Jony Ive, who had been with Apple for five years, had become Apple's head of industrial design.

However, Apple was on the verge of collapse at that time, and Jony Ive himself was filled with despair and was planning to leave. At this time, Steve Jobs returned to Apple and discovered Jony Ive in a dramatic way, and determined that he was the design genius that Apple needed.

[[269179]]

According to Jony Ive’s recollection, he and Steve Jobs hit it off right away. He said:

• We were at a meeting showing him what we were making, and we just clicked right away… There’s a sense of exile and loneliness when you feel like you see the world in a very particular way, and because of that, we both saw the world in pretty much the same way.

He is my best and most loyal partner.

Over the next decade, he and Steve Jobs became close friends who appreciated each other.

In 1998, under the guidance of Jony Ive, iMac was launched and became a huge success, saving Apple, which was on the verge of collapse. Later, with the support of the design team led by Jony Ive, Apple launched iPod, iPhone, iPad and other products one after another.

It is worth mentioning that Jony Ive often appears in product introduction videos at Apple conferences. His unique and magnetic British pronunciation is impressive, and he is therefore called "Apple's top voice actor."

In 2011, Steve Jobs passed away and Jony Ive also attended Steve Jobs' funeral.

[[269180]]

At the funeral, Jony Ive said:

• He was my best and most loyal partner for nearly 15 years. He would joke that it was like a mental patient taking over a nursing home when we spent months and months together working on products that no one had ever seen. However, we did not do these products for the eyes of others, but because we believed it was the right thing to do. Steve Jobs believed that caring about things that went beyond functional requirements was like a civic duty... Although we had achieved some success, Steve Jobs never thought that we would eventually get there; when inspiration did not come or the prototypes failed, he still maintained great intentions and beliefs and decided to believe that we would eventually create great works.

Impacting the world through design

In 2013, Scott Forstall, Apple's senior vice president who was in charge of iOS software development, left Apple. So Jony Ive, in addition to being in charge of hardware design, also served as the head of Apple's human-computer interaction group, and was in charge of the appearance design of Apple's hardware and software.

On October 10, 2014, regarding the launch of Apple's iPhone 6/Plus large-screen mobile phones, Jony Ive said:

• We had developed a prototype of a large-screen smartphone a few years ago. But like many of our competitors' phones today, our large-screen smartphone was bulky and heavy. We knew we needed a large-screen phone, but we had to make many improvements to make it a truly compelling product.

In 2015, Jony Ive was appointed Apple's chief design officer.

In June 2016, according to the news released on the official website of Cambridge University, seven leading figures from many fields such as sports, computers, and medicine were awarded honorary degrees from Cambridge University. Among them was Apple's chief design officer Jony Ive, who received a doctorate in science.

[[269181]]

Speaking of its recognition of Jony Ive, Cambridge University said:

• Jonathan Ive was awarded a Doctor of Science degree for his profound impact on computing in the world through design, making technology more accessible.

In the same month, Oxford University also awarded Jony Ive a Doctor of Science degree.

Of course, in addition to awards from Cambridge University and Oxford University, Jony Ive has also received many honors in the field of design. For example:

• Six of his products are collected by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
• In 2003 he was named "Designer of the Year" by the London Design Museum;
• In 2012, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art awarded him the "Lifetime Achievement Award".

Designed By Apple In California

In November 2016, Apple announced the release of a set of hardcover books, Designed By Apple In California, which recorded Apple's 20 years of design drafts. The book showcased Apple's past and present products through 450 photos, including the iMac from 1998 to the Apple Pencil from 2015. Not only that, the book also recorded in detail the innovative materials and technologies used by Apple's design team.

The main purpose of Apple publishing this book is to commemorate the company's founder Steve Jobs, but in a sense, it can also be said to be a summary of Jony Ive's entire design career at Apple.

Jony Ive wrote a preface for this book, in which he said:

Although this is a design book, it is not only written for people who work in the design industry, creative work, and product development. This book objectively describes Apple's design work and shows people what we are. In the book, there are our working methods, our values, our careers and our goals. We want people to know what we do rather than simply telling some design stories. To a certain extent, we have succeeded, but those things that seem effortless actually condense a lot of efforts of Apple. Those Apple products that look minimalist, coherent and inevitable are actually made by rational design.

His last work for Apple

Regarding Apple's design team, Jony Ive once said in an interview in November 2017:

• We are a very resilient design team. The whole team is always curious and constantly looking for new things to replace those old and rigid designs. We can understand some ideas immediately, but some ideas are actually ahead of the development of technology. These ideas exist in the form of a concept and continue to inspire technological innovation and progress. Some of them will bear fruit, while others will just wither away.

When asked if Apple had lost something fundamental with the death of Steve Jobs, Jony Ive responded:

• When I look back over the past 25 years, the most valuable thing is not what we have done, but how we have done it and what we have learned in the process. I often think that every time I am making a product, I am actually doing two things: one is to create a certain object or service, first to give birth to the idea of ​​creation, and then to follow this idea to realize it; the other is a kind of power acquired in the process. It is a power that allows me to do the next thing and the next thing better.

As the last product Steve Jobs left for Apple, Apple Park is also Jony Ive's landmark work for Apple in terms of design.

[[269182]]

One of the main architects of Apple Park, Foster + Partners partner Stefan Behling said in an interview:

• Everything in this theater, all the details, everything you can see around you, was done with Apple's chief design officer Jony Ive and his team. We've been almost one over the past nine years. We've been talking together all the time, sketching together. This is not a building that's only signed by Foster + Partners.

Leifeng.com Summary

If the death of Steve Jobs means that the entire Apple company has entered the Tim Cook era, then the departure of Jony Ive means the beginning of another era in terms of design for Apple. Jony Ive is another soul figure of Apple in the past two decades besides Steve Jobs. With the return of Steve Jobs in 1997 and his death in 2011 as the time nodes, Jony Ive and Steve Jobs jointly shaped the spiritual connotation of Apple today. His influence on Apple continued after Steve Jobs, and even after he left Apple.

Apple will also enter the post-Jony Ive era.

[[269183]]

This article is reproduced from Leiphone.com. If you need to reprint it, please go to Leiphone.com official website to apply for authorization.