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Jony Ive

Chief Design Officer

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Often known as Jony Ive, Sir Jonathan Ive joined Apple in 1992 and was made Senior Vice President of Industrial Design under Steve Jobs in 1997. Rumors suggest he almost left Apple shortly before his new appointment. Ive and Jobs were known to be very close and Ive was granted free reign to work and innovate as he saw fit. His title was recently updated from Senior Vice President to Chief Design Officer in July 2015.

In 1989, Ive earned a first class Bachelor of Arts degree from Newcastle Polytechnic (now Northumbria University). He is famous for his unique and popular (although controversial at the time) design of the iMac line, which started in 1998. This success led to his other design accomplishments with the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Ive has shared that iconic designer Dieter Rams has been a major influence for him, and Rams has mentioned that he believes Apple to be one of the few companies that designs around his ‘ten principles of good design.’

 

Jony Ive on Apple Watch Series 4: ‘Every bone in my body tells me this is very significant’

Following the introduction of the Apple Watch Series 4 yesterday at Steve Jobs Theater, Apple’s Chief Design Officer Jony Ive offered his thoughts on the future of wearable technology and what drives him and the entire design team to continue pushing the Apple Watch ahead. Ive seldom comments publicly on Apple’s design decisions, but has established his particular fondness for the Apple Watch several times before.


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Jony Ive says iPhone X is only the beginning of a new chapter in iPhone development

In a brief interview that took place at the iPhone X launch but has only been published this week, Apple’s design head Jony Ive said that while the new flagship phone represents the achievement of a long-held ambition, it is only the beginning.

Ive said that the iPhone X is a huge change in the design of the company’s smartphones …


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Jony Ive says we ‘sense care’ in good design, Apple will continue to be revolutionary, and more in new interview

Update 10/11: Video clip of the interview added above the transcript below.

Jony Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Officer, is set to take the stage at The New Yorker TechFest to discuss ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ with The New Yorker‘s editor David Remnick. 9to5Mac is live from the venue in New York City and will have full coverage starting at the top of the hour (10 am PT/1 pm ET). Follow along below:


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Jony Ive appointed chancellor of ‘the world’s best design school’ the Royal College of Art

Jony Ive

Apple’s chief design officer Jony Ive has been appointed chancellor of London’s famous Royal College of Art (RCA). The RCA has been ranked as the world’s best university for art and design for three years running.

Ive, who was awarded an honorary doctorate by the RCA back in 2009, says he is thrilled by the news …


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Photos posted from exclusive tour inside Apple Park, with video coming soon [Gallery]

Wired has been given an exclusive look inside the spaceship ring of the Apple Campus, revealing the ‘pod’ approach that was the brainchild of Steve Jobs.

As with any Apple product, its shape would be determined by its function. This would be a workplace where people were open to each other and open to nature, and the key to that would be modular sections, known as pods, for work or collaboration. Jobs’ idea was to repeat those pods over and over: pod for office work, pod for teamwork, pod for socializing, like a piano roll playing a Philip Glass composition. They would be distributed demo­cratically. Not even the CEO would get a suite or a similar incongruity. And while the company has long been notorious for internal secrecy, compartmentalizing its projects on a need-to-know basis, Jobs seemed to be proposing a more porous structure where ideas would be more freely shared across common spaces. Not totally open, of course—Ive’s design studio, for instance, would be shrouded by translucent glass—but more open than Infinite Loop.

The site has posted a small selection of teaser photos (below), and promises that video is coming soon …


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Design book and Gruber podcast fuel speculation on whether Jony Ive is ‘on the way out’ from Apple

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When Apple very quietly announced a new job title for Jony Ive last year, the company presenting it as a promotion didn’t stop speculation about what it might really mean. The fact that he was handing over management responsibilities and spending more time in his native England seemed to suggest that Apple’s design lead might in fact be taking more of a back-seat role.

Apple’s publication of a design book that focused on Ive’s designs, ignoring everything that went before, reignited that debate, with some suggesting that he was looking back on his life’s work. Ive himself said that he wasn’t focused on looking back, but noted Apple blogger John Gruber further fueled the fire with comments on a podcast …


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Jony Ive says his team looks forward, not back, but felt obligated to create design book

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With Apple’s $199/$299 Designed by Apple in California photo book having received mixed reactions, Jony Ive told Dazed that the company didn’t necessarily actively want to create the book, but felt obligated to do so. This follows an earlier interview with a Japanese design website.

We started the project about eight years ago, with the feeling that we had a responsibility to try and create an archive of what we’ve done. Honestly, it felt more of an obligation than something that we felt really compelled to do. The reason for that, and I guess it’s a fairly obvious one, is that as designers, we are far more interested in and consumed by the future; in what doesn’t exist yet. But we’ve been working together for 20, 25 years, and it felt like the right and appropriate thing to do. You get a sense of what we’ve learned as a team and of how technology is evolving.

He also said that there were times when the design team really felt that the iPhone project wasn’t going to work out …


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Jony Ive rejected touchscreen Mac, but working on things beyond the Touch Bar

In an interview with CNET, Jony Ive said that his team had rejected a touchscreen Mac ‘many, many years ago.’ He did, though, suggest that Apple is working on other concepts in this general area, beyond the Touch Bar.

Asked why a touchscreen Mac would be inappropriate, Ive said:

For a bunch of practical reasons. It’s difficult to talk [laughs] without going into a lot of details that puts me starting to talk about things that we are working on. I don’t really want to talk much more about it.

We of course think we know one of those things already …


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Apple continues its focus on fashion, will again sponsor the annual Met Gala

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Jony Ive at 2016 Met Gala

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced its annual Costume Institute exhibition and gala and Apple again will be one of the sponsors for the event, according to Vogue. The 2017 Met Gala theme will be “Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons.” For those unfamiliar, Res Kawakubo is a prominent fashion design, while Comme des Garçons is her label.


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