Jonathan Ive: The Designer Behind Apple's Revolutionary Products

It was 1992 when Jonathan Ive first encountered Steve Jobs, and it would change his life forever. Jobs told Ive that if he really wanted to create something radical, he should come work for Apple full-time. Ive agonized over the decision, weighing the pros and cons of leaving his homeland and work at Tangerine behind. He also wasn't sure whether his wife, Heather, would want to move to the States.

But what influenced his decision? For one, Apple offered a supportive work environment where he could focus on design as a craft. He had become frustrated with consulting, which made it difficult for him to have a serious impact on product plans and true innovation. Finally, he got to live in San Francisco, the city he had fallen in love with years earlier. In September 1992, at the age of twenty-seven, Ive accepted a full-time position at Apple, and his first assignment was to redesign the Newton MessagePad.

The first version was a failure, but Apple was hoping to change that with its second iteration. Ive worked tirelessly on the project, involving himself in every last detail. Even traveling to Taiwan to fix manufacturing problems, no amount of effort from Ive was enough to save the Newton. Apple had made marketing and engineering mistakes that plagued the Newton until it was finally discontinued. So it may not have been a commercial success, but Jonathan Ive's Newton was a design success. It earned him four of the top awards in the industry and the honor of being featured in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

During this time, Apple was experiencing tremendous financial success and had more money than they knew what to do with. But just three years later in 1995, all of that changed. Windows 95 was released, and cheap PCs began to fly off the shelves, undercutting the Mac. In the first quarter of 1996, Apple reported a sixty-nine million dollar loss and laid off thirteen-hundred employees. This caused Apple's focus to shift from developing high-quality, well-designed Macs to pushing out the cheapest machines they could possibly make. This was truly a period of no innovation at Apple, and it destroyed Jonathan Ive's moral.

He said, "All they wanted from us designers was a model of what something was supposed to look like on the outside, and then engineers would make it as cheap as possible. I was about to quit." But before he could, Jon Rubinstein, his new boss, talked him out of it. Rubinstein gave Ive a raise and told him that eventually the company would turn around and they'd have the opportunity to make history. And with Jobs return to Apple in 1997, Rubinstein was exactly right.

Jobs brought focus to not only the company but also Ive's design group. Because he was young and inexperienced as a manager, Ive wasn't exercising much discipline or leadership. It was creative chaos, with each designer working on their own projects with virtually no coordination. Jobs refocused the design team and got them working together on a new project called the Mac NC, which would later become the iMac.

The team only had nine months to get it from design to production. To meet this deadline, Ive implemented a radical, integrated design process that transformed the way Apple developed its products. The workflow was so successful that it became permanent, and it's essentially the same system the design group uses today. So the iMac was released nine months later and ended up being the best-selling Mac in Apple's history up to that point.

Jonathan Ive had finally found a company that gave him the freedom to practice his craft effectively without limitations. In fact, part of Jobs' reorganization of Apple included giving the design team power over any other group, including engineering. And because Ive was head of design, he had a tremendous amount of operational power at Apple, second only to Steve Jobs.

In 2007, Jonny Ive played a crucial role in the development of the iPhone. His design skills and experience made him an ideal candidate for this project. The iPhone's design revolutionized the smartphone industry and set a new standard for mobile devices. Ive continued to work on various Apple products, including the iPod, iPad, and AirPods.

But a fundamental problem with Ive has been raised quite often, and that is what will happen when he inevitably leaves Apple? A similar question was asked about Jobs before he passed, but Ive's circumstances are quite different. It's his hands, heart, and mind that are directly designing these products. And no one is quite sure whether his unmatched talent can be passed down to other members of the design team.

But I'm confident that if any company could figure out a way around that obstacle, it's Apple. So that is the history of Jonathan Ive, and if you want to vote for the next video topic, don't forget to subscribe. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHey guys, it’s Greg with Apple Explained,and today we’re going to explore the historyof Jonathan Ive.Where he came from, how he got involved inproduct design, some of his career achievements,and how he ended up as Chief Design Officerof the most valuable company in the world.This topic was the second place winner oflast weeks voting poll and if you didn’tget to vote, make sure you’re subscribed,that way the voting polls will show up rightin your activity feed and you can let me knowwhich video you’d like to see next.So Jonathan Ive is a legendary designer whowas responsible for the look of some of themost iconic products like the iPod, iPhone,iPad, and iMac.And although you may be very familiar withthe products he’s designed, you probablyaren’t too familiar with the man himself,since he’s known to be a private personwho avoids media attention.But in this video we’ll cover what we doknow about Jonathan Ive, starting with hisearly years in the town of Chingford, London.His childhood circumstances were comfortablebut modest.His father, Michael John Ive, was a silversmith,and his mother, Pamela Mary Ive, was a psychotherapist.They had a second child, Alison, two yearsafter their son’s birth.Jonathan Ive attended Chingford FoundationSchool, later to be the alma mater of DavidBeckham.While in school, Ive was diagnosed with dyslexia,but it never seriously effected his education.Ive was curious about the inner workings ofthings throughout his childhood and was fascinatedby how objects were put together.He would carefully dismantle radios and cassetterecorders, exploring how they were assembledand how the pieces fit.Although when he tried to put the equipmentback together again, he didn’t always succeed.In a 2003 interview conducted at London’sDesign Museum he said, “I remember alwaysbeing interested in made objects.As a kid, I remember taking apart whateverI could get my hands on.Later, this developed into more of an interestin how they were made, how they worked, theirform and material.”Although he recognized his passion quite earlyin life, it took him some time to figure outwhat exactly he wanted to design.His interests ranged from furniture and jewelryto cars and boats.Ive’s father took him on tours around Londondesign studios and design schools and youngJonathan Ive took a special interest in acar design studio.He later looked into attending Central SaintMartins College of Arts and Design in London,famous for their automotive design program.But Ive found the school to be a bad fit dueto the other students being, as he put it,“too weird” since they were making ‘vroomvroom’ noises as they did their drawings.He looked elsewhere for a higher educationand eventually turned to Newcastle Polytechnicin the north of England, Ive decided productdesign would become his specialty.It was during his college years when Ive furtherdeveloped his signature design style basedon German Bauhaus tradition.This design philosophy embraced a minimalistapproach, where designers should only designwhat is needed.And these were the same principles followedby former Braun designer Dieter Rams, andyou can see similarities in the products eachof them have created.Ive also received several design awards throughouthis academic career, including the PitneyBowes’ Walter Wheeler Attachment Award andtwo scholarships from the RSA.After he graduated, Ive took a trip to siliconvalley to explore up-and-coming design studiosin the Bay Area.He immediately fell in love with San Franciscoand hoped he would return there sometime inthe future.But until then, Ive returned to London towork for the Roberts Weaver Group, one ofthe top design firms in Britain at the time.Here, Jonathan Ive became friends with manyof his coworkers including Clive Grinyer,who quickly move on from RWG to join anotherdesign firm and eventually start his own consultancy.But Ive remained at RWG and eventually experiencedsome troubles with the company, mainly dueto him being fresh out of college.First, they didn’t give him a substantialraise that he requested even though his talentswarranted it.Second, RWG declined a special request fromtheir client Ideal Standard to assign JonathanIve to their project.They rationalized the decision by saying theyhad a studio of twelve designers and therewas no way they could send a fresh graduatelike Ive to go and work with one of theirclients.Jonathan Ive eventually left RWG out of frustrationand joined his old friend Grinyer’s designconsultancy called Tangerine Design.And although Ive had more freedom over hisdesigns at Tangerine, they were often rejectedby clients due to expense or deviation fromthe company’s existing product line.Another problem was clients accepting Ive’sdesigns, but reengineering them only to lookhalf as good as it should have been.These rejections deeply frustrated Ive whopoured his heart and soul into each producthe designed.But in fall of 1991, a visitor to TangerineDesign would help change all of that for JonathanIve.His name was Bob Brunner, and he was scoutingEurope for outside design firms to work withApple on a secret project called Juggernaut.And Brunner was determined to get JonathanIve on board at Apple.At the time, Apple was being run by John Sculleysince Steve Jobs had been forced out six yearsprior.The desktop publishing revolution was puttingMacs in businesses all over the world andApple had just celebrated its first quarterearning two billion in revenue.With all this cash, Apple was expanding itproduct lines and Sculley was investing heavilyin R&D to speed up development of new products.Ive accepted a contract to consult on theJuggernaut project, but he was still workingunder Tangerine Design.Apple wanted him to focus on developing mobiledevices like tablets and laptop hybrids.Ive went to work and produced something calledthe “folio keyboard” that featured itsown CPU, network jacks, and a trackpad.He also created a transportable desktop calledthe Macintosh Workspace that had a built-in,pen-sensitive screen, along with a split keyboardthat folded underneath and to the sides whennot in use.At the end of the project, Jonathan Ive andthe other designers at Tangerine had developedabout twenty-five models that were reduceddown to four principle designs.Brunner was very impressed with Ive’s contributionsand thought his designs stood out becausethey weren’t based on anything that Apple,or any other computer company, had done before.Now that’s quite an impressive amount oftalent considering Ive was just twenty-sixat the time.Apple then flew him out to their Cupertinoheadquarters to make a final presentationand a job offer.Brunner pulled Ive off to the side and said,“If you really want to create somethingradical, you should come work for Apple fulltime.”Ive agonized over the decision.He had enjoyed working with Apple, but wasn’tsure if he wanted to leave both his homelandand his work at Tangerine.He also wasn’t sure whether his wife, Heather,would want to move to the States.Now we all know he eventually took the job,but what’s more interesting are the factorsthat influenced his decision.He appreciated that Apple offered a supportivework environment where he could focus lesson day-to-day business operations and moreon design as a craft.Also, he had become frustrated with consulting.Working outside a company made it difficultto have a serious impact on product planswith true innovation.And finally, he got to live in San Francisco,the city he had fallen in love with yearsearlier.In September 1992, at age twenty-seven, Iveaccepted a full-time position at Apple, andhis first assignment was to redesign the NewtonMessagePad.The first version was a failure, but Applewas hoping to change that with its seconditeration.Ive worked tirelessly on the project and involvedhimself in every last detail.Even traveling to Taiwan to fix manufacturingproblems.But no amount of effort from Ive was enoughto save the Newton.Apple had made marketing and engineering mistakesthat plagued the Newton until it was finallydiscontinued.So it may not have been a commercial success,but Jonathan Ive’s Newton was a design success.It earned him four of the top awards in theindustry and the honor of being featured inthe permanent collection of the San FranciscoMuseum of Modern Art.Now during this time, Apple was experiencingtremendous financial success and had moremoney than they knew what to do with.But just three years later in 1995, all ofthat changed.Windows 95 was released and cheap PCs beganto fly off the shelves, undercutting the Mac.In the first quarter of 1996, Apple reporteda sixty-nine million dollar loss and laidoff thirteen-hundred employees.This caused Apple’s focus to shift fromdeveloping high-quality, well-designed Macsto pushing out the cheapest machines theycould possibly make.This was truly a period of no innovation atApple, and it destroyed Jonathan Ive’s moral.He said, “All they wanted from us designerswas a model of what something was supposedto look like on the outside, and then engineerswould make it as cheap as possible.I was about to quit.”But before he could, Jon Rubinstein, his newboss, talked him out of it.Rubinstein gave Ive a raise and told him thateventually the company would turn around andthey’d have the opportunity to make history.And with Jobs return to Apple in 1997, Rubinsteinwas exactly right.Jobs brought focus to not only the companybut also Ive’s design group.Because he was young and inexperienced asa manager, Ive wasn’t exercising much disciplineor leadership.It was creative chaos, with each designerworking on their own projects with virtuallyno coordination.Jobs refocused the design team and got themworking together on a new project called theMac NC, which would later become the iMac.The team only had nine months to get it fromdesign to production.To meet this deadline, Ive implemented a radical,integrated design process that transformedthe way Apple developed its products.The workflow was so successful that it becamepermanent, and it’s essentially the samesystem the design group uses today.So the iMac was released nine months laterand ended up being the best-selling Mac inApple’s history up to that point.Jonathan Ive had finally found a company thatgave him the freedom to practice his crafteffectively without limitations.In fact, part of Jobs reorganization of Appleincluded giving the design team power overany other group, including engineering.And because Ive was head of design, he hada tremendous amount of operational power atApple, second only to Steve Jobs.Jonathan Ive went on to design almost everyhit product to Apple’s name.Including the iMac, iPod, iPad, iPhone, AppleWatch, and AirPods.But a fundamental problem with Ive has beenraised quite often, and that is, what willhappen when he inevitably leaves Apple?A similar question was asked about Jobs beforehe passed, but Ive’s circumstances are quitedifferent.It’s his hands, heart, and mind that aredirectly designing these products.And no one is quite sure whether his unmatchedtalent can be passed down to other membersof the design team.But I’m confident that if any company couldfigure out a way around that obstacle, it’sApple.So that is the history of Jonathan Ive, andif you want to vote for the next video topic,don’t forget to subscribe.Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you nexttime.\n"