Jony Ive. Designer of Tomorrow (Part II)
Makradar Technologies / / December 19, 2019
On the eve of Sunday Times Magazine published an extensive article about John Arlidzha Apple's chief designer, in which tells of how as a result of his work changed computers, phones and music device. Given the secrecy that prevails in the company and personal modesty Quince is probably one of the most outspoken interview Quince.
part I
Transfiguration Apple
But Tangerine had one client who Ive admired - is Apple (he began working with the company as a consultant). He worked on the design of the first line of portable computers Powerbook, Apple released in 1991. Ive turned to Apple, having a "big problems with computers", as a student he was afraid of what is "technically unsuitable". However, an intuitive control system epplovskaya mouse suddenly everything made easy. The company invited him to 2 years full-time. Ive doubt. While Apple has had problems, and the company was "overseas". But I agreed. It was 1992.
The first few years of disappointment. Then Apple products were dull. Remember Newton? I think no. Design meant nothing. Ive was almost ready to leave. But his talent was noticed by Steve Jobs, who returned in 1996 after his ouster in 1985, to try to save the company. They went to a crazy journey, whose goal was the transformation of a faceless inert around the world. At least, they thought they could change it. Unlike other giants in the electronics market, which did everything from computers and cameras to refrigerators, Apple has always released just three types of devices: computers, entertainment and Soup phones.
Ive worked in a design studio located in the Apple campus in Cupertino at - Infinite Loop, 1. Like other campuses Apple, it's pretty dull building from dripping and beige - beige! - concrete blocks. But there is one important difference. Opaque glass, and no one except the Quince, the members of his team and Apple top managers can not go in there. "The reason for that is the only place where you can see all of our development - all the projects, all the prototypes" - says Ive.
The team, which has specialists from the UK, America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, "is actually a lot smaller than you think - about 15 people. Most work together for 15-20 years. " It's practical. "We can sharply criticize each other's work. Personal ambitions were long gone. " Large studio with an open-plan, like most personal items Ive at Apple, completely white. A large wooden counter, similar to the Genius Bar in the Apple Store, devoted to new products. At one end a plurality of high numerical control used for prototyping. "All the people I work with feel the same love and respect for the process of creating a new" - he says.
Ive starts the project, trying to imagine what the product is and how it should work. Only by answering these questions, he begins to work on the appearance. He is looking for clues in unexpected places. So, working on his first big hit, the original iMac'om, he appealed to the producers of confectionery products to obtain a perfectly transparent hues like candy Jelly-bean. He traveled to the city of Niigata in northern Japan, to see for themselves how to handle thin metal mechanics, helping to build him a titanium Powerbook - the first lightweight aluminum laptop in the world of burly black plastic plates.
He spent "months and months and months," developing a neat shape the iMac desktop stand, because "very it is difficult to come up with something that you almost do not notice, because it seems so commonplace, natural and unchanged. " When Ive completes the product even such an original and iconic as the first white headphones for the iPod, it pursues the idea: "Could I make it better?". "Designers are cursed these ordeals" - he frowns.
Such "ordeal" were and Jobs, though the latter seems to have felt the flour in everything short of ridiculous. Ive recalls traveling with Jobs, "we got to the hotel, where the planned stay, I checked in and went to see his room. I left the suitcases near the door. I did not unpack. Sat on the bed and waited for the inevitable call from Steve: "Hey, Johnny, this hotel sucks, leave."
The Apple still feel the presence of Jobs. On the wall in front of the room, which was held with our Ayvom meeting, in huge letters one of his sayings written "If you do something, and that was good enough, you have to do something else, fine, but do not relax for a long time. To understand what to do next. " Why are these two people worked together so well? After all, they are very different. Ive soft with simple manners. His witty, like a laser, the idea originated in his warmth and sense of humor, which is most often self-irony. But no one has ever talked about Jobs as a man calm and Samoironichnye. "When we looked at things, our eyes have seen physically the same. We asked the same questions, the same interest in things. "
I Was Jobs so heavy man, as they say about him? His name is associated with many stories in which he humiliates subordinates and even - and perhaps especially - top managers. "About Steve a lot, then it has been written, but most of it I do not recognize his friend. Yes, he held strict views. Yes, he could bite into the conversation. Yes, he always puts everything into question - "Is this good enough? Is it correct?". But he was so smart, that his ideas have always been daring and beautiful. They could appear out of thin air. And even when the idea did not come, he thought that eventually we will do something big. And, oh joy, we did it! ".
You probably think that such a creator as Ive, a product, for example the iPhone, which he identifies as its greatest achievement. This is certainly the most copied the invention of modern times. But he does not like the product, but the idea itself. According to him, he and his team have shown that consumers care about not only the price, as is often assumed.
"We are surrounded by nameless, bad things done. This suggests the idea that the people who use them, all the same, as well as the people who make them. But we have shown that people are not all the same. It's not just about aesthetics. People respond to things that are well designed and well made. We create and sell a very, very large number of beautiful (I hope), and well-made things. Our success - a victory for probity, purity and commitment. "
It's not just about aesthetics. Our success - a victory for probity, purity and commitment
Maybe. But critics complain about the obsolescence of Apple products, the absolute secrecy of its operating systems, the need to buy a new charger for each new product and their value. Oh, the price! $ 20 for a plastic charger, the cost of which is probably less than $ 2! Chargers and iOS - This is a fundamental question for Apple and its new leader Tim Cook. With regard to aging, Ive admits that uses a fifth version of the smartphone, invented (at its core) back in 2007, but, yes, the charger is now quite different. But he says: "There is one thing that makes our products special - they are refined and used again." What did you do with your old iPhones? "Um... actually, they are not mine. They belong to the company. " What the company is doing with them? "We have them dismantle, recycle and re-use. I understand what is behind your question, but I think that is a fundamental and a good part of the human being, when people are trying to improve the existing things. That's what we do. "
About the price Ive said that if there is a product, life-changing, the existence of which was you can not even imagine, we just want to get it, so it is not surprising that the price is quite high. Moreover, the principle of the selected Apple production is characterized by high levels of control, which is worth a lot of money. We spend so much time and effort not to raise the price of products. Rather the opposite, "- he laughs. Ive picks up the iPhone to show how it is technically complicated. "The body is made from a single piece of machined aluminum" - he says with his Essex accent, above which often joked Jobs. "The whole body, except for the Apple logo, first polished to a mirror, and then it is given texture. Chamfer on the edges are cut with a diamond cutter tip. Such mills are short-lived, so we had to find a special way of their use in mass production. The coating chamber - sapphire crystal. A look at the details around the SIM-card slot. It's incredible. "
It is beautiful and certainly worth a lot of money. But there is in this game is something that is not talking about Ive. While Apple makes such innovative products that no other manufacturer, even the main competitor Samsung, can beat iPad, Apple may request as much money as he wants, and the consumer will be to pay. Apple sells each year about 250 million iPhone, iPad and Mac, but with the launch of the iTunes Store users downloaded over 25 billion songs and more than 1 billion TV show. All this brings the company's profits, forcing competitors to weep with envy.
Ive says a lot more about production than about the design, it even seems strange that he chose to work in the field of technology, where all the magic is to create software, not its external incarnation. The iPad and iPhone are no gears. But Ive said that the high-tech products, there is something uniquely attractive. "The product that you have in your hand or in your ear or in your pocket, it is much more personal than the one that just stands on your desk. The desire to create a complex, but intimate, personalized technology - it's the first thing that attracted me to Apple. The people are incredibly personal relationship with what we're doing. "
The last part of the interview Johnny Quince - tonight MacRadar!
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