Meet the Man Who Designed All Your Apple Devices
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This bald, bearded man is the person who designed the iPhone in your pocket, the MacBook on your desk, and the iPod in your gym bag. His name is Jony Ive, and as the senior vice president of design at Apple, he's been one of the most influential product designers of all time. Vogue recently got a rare sit-down interview with Sir Jony Ive at Apple's Cupertino, CA, campus, and there were some pretty major insights into the notoriously private designer's life, including a quote from Bono (you know, U2's leading man) about what it's like to grab a drink with him.
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On the Apple Watch
"Everything we've been trying to do," he says, "it's that pursuit of the very pure and very simple."
The Apple Watch (arrives early 2015) is Jony Ive's latest creation. It is, in the words of Vogue writer Robert Sullivan, "a device you might like even if you don't like devices." Jony tried his best to mask the technology in the watch, so as to enable "more subtle, nuanced communication" rather than inhibit it.
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On His Personality
Bono: "When you go out for a pint with Jony, it's kind of like going for a pint with the future, which is cool except you know he's not telling you what they've really got planned."
The profile mentions a "serious Ive" many times who is sworn to supersecrecy. His wife of over 20 years, writer Heather Pegg, and his twin sons have never been to the Apple design studio, because they aren't allowed. He won't even tell her what he's working on!
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On His Creative Environment
"I find that when I write I need things to be quiet, but when I design, I can't bear it if it's quiet," he says.
The design studio is tinted and is constantly blasting techno music (Jony and his team's favorite genre, allegedly).
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On His Relationship With Steve Jobs
"It was literally the meeting showing him what we'd worked on," Ive says, "and we just clicked."
That fateful meeting was Steve and Jony's first interaction. The Apple founder visited the design studio and had each designer explain what they were working on. It was the beginning of a very fruitful relationship. Steve once referred to Jony as his "spiritual partner." The designer and Apple founder met in 1997, the year Steve returned to Apple. The two went on to develop the colorful iMac, the aluminum MacBooks, the revolutionary iPod, and the even more influential iPhone.
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On His Design Process
"I think now more than ever it's important to be clear, to be singular, and to have a perspective, one you didn't generate as the result of doing a lot of focus groups."
No outside influences — the concepts, ideas, and creativity of Jony and his design team are highly protected and regarded. He is interested in purity, a theme that repeated itself in the profile and is iterated by Jony himself in his quote about the Apple Watch ("it's that pursuit of the very pure and very simple").