This is the man that gets the credit for designing the faces of our favorite Apple products. It was his idea to introduce the fun colors for the iMacs and to shape the iPhone, iPod, and iPad with clean, streamlined edges and a glass screen. He, in major part, is the reason we love Apple products. We love to hold the smooth products that fit perfectly into our hands and love the flawless glass screen that we swipe and tap countless times every day. It’s interesting that all of our favorite Apple features were intentionally designed and required great intellect and thought to create such products that we obliviously use every day without knowing what went into decision made for the ascetics of the icons, buttons, surfaces, menu format, etc.
USA Today took the liberty of interviewing Ive on September 19th, 2013 to delve more deeply into this design brilliance. Ive states a question he always asks when developing a design for Apple products: “what experience is going to deliver?” I imagine Ive commented with disgruntled tone when he talked about most companies whose agenda is get bigger and better and have more of this and less of that. He exclaims that Apple is much more concerned with the intricacies on the inside of the gadgets, the things that people will never take note of. .
“If Apple has a design wizard, it is Ive.”
But he seems content with the Apple user’s oblivion to this behind-the-scenes technicality and intentionality. He says proudly that this is “at the heart of what we [at Apple] do.” It’s little surprise that Ive was considered Steve Jobs’ “spiritual partner” as Steve himself was a detail enthusiast. Jobs took great joy in having this young prodigy put beautiful aesthetics into the products he labored to create, while capturing Jobs’ vision for Apple in the look and feel and face of the products. A famous quote by Jobs’ that lines the walls of a floor in the Apple headquarters where Ive works, reads “I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long.” This could be what is propelling Ive and other Apple geniuses to ‘keep on keepin’ on’ with the wonderful improvements that are constantly offered to technology users.
-Mary Claire Higgins
SHOComm 