Skip to main content

Apple designer Jony Ive: 'if we can’t make something that is better, we won’t do it'

Apple designer Jony Ive: 'if we can’t make something that is better, we won’t do it'

/

Sir Jonathan Ive, Apple's senior vice-president of industrial design, speaks about his work creating many of the company's iconic pieces of consumer electronics.

Share this story

Jonathan Ive
Jonathan Ive

Sir Jonathan Ive may not be as well-known as former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, but the London-born designer is behind much of the company's trendsetting hardware. In late 2011, Ive received a knighthood for his part in creating iconic Apple products like the Mac, iPod, and iPad; he has also been honored with several other design awards. Ive rarely speaks about his work, but the London Evening Standard recently interviewed him about his role as Apple's senior vice-president of industrial design and how his work has been shaped by his UK roots.

Despite Apple's admonition to "think different," Ive insists that the company's real goal is to create products that can be used in interesting new ways. "Most of our competitors are interested in doing something different, or want to appear new — I think those are completely the wrong goals. A product has to be genuinely better." The real challenge of design, he says, is to find products that can "replace entire categories of device rather than tactically responding to an individual problem." This idea, combined with a focus on integrating design, prototyping, and production, is responsible for the close connection that people can feel with Apple devices. For the rest of the interview, click through to the source link below.