Sir Jony Ive | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Ive atGoodwood Festival of Speed in 2010 | |
| Born | Jonathan Paul Ive (1967-02-27)27 February 1967 (age 58) |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom United States (since 2012) |
| Education | Newcastle Polytechnic (BA) |
| Occupation | Industrial designer |
| Known for | FormerChief Design Officer atApple Inc. Co-designer of theiMac,iPod,iPhone,iPad,Apple Watch,AirPods andiOS 7 toiOS 13 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | List of awards and nominations |
| Chancellor of theRoyal College of Art | |
| Assumed office 1 July 2017 | |
| Preceded by | James Dyson (as Provost) |
Sir Jonathan Paul Ive (born 27 February 1967) is a British-American designer.[1] He is best known for his work atApple Inc., where he was senior vice president of industrial design andchief design officer.[2][3] He has been chancellor of theRoyal College of Art in London since 2017.
Ive joined Apple in September 1992, and was promoted to senior vice president of industrial design in the late 1990s after the return of the co-founder,Steve Jobs. He was Chief Design Officer from 2015, until his departure in July 2019. Working closely with Jobs, Ive played a vital role in the designs of products including theiMac,Power Mac G4 Cube,iPod,iPhone,iPad,MacBook, and the user interface of Apple's mobile operating systemiOS. He was also responsible for the design of major architectural projects includingApple Park andApple Stores.
Born in London, Ive lived there until his family moved toStafford when he was 12. He studied design atNewcastle Polytechnic,[a] and later joined the London-based design firm Tangerine, where he worked on client projects for LG and Ideal Standard as well as Apple.[4] After leaving Tangerine to join Apple full time, he began designing the decade'sPowerBooks andMacs. He acquired US citizenship in 2012.[5][1] He was invited to join the Royal College of Art in May 2017 as its head of college, serving a fixed five-year term until May 2022.
Ive has receivedaccolades and honours for his designs and patents. In the United Kingdom, he has been appointed aRoyal Designer for Industry (RDI), anHonorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (HonFREng), and aKnight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE). In 2018, he was awarded theHawking Fellowship of theCambridge Union Society.[6] In a 2004BBC poll of cultural writers, Ive was ranked the most influential person inBritish culture.[7] His designs have been described as integral to the successes of Apple, the world's largest information technology company by revenue and the largest company in the world by market capitalization. In 2019, Ive announced he his departure from Apple after 27 years to start his own design firm, LoveFrom, with the industrial designerMarc Newson. In 2021, he was recruited by theAgnelli family to work onFerrari vehicles.[8]
Jonathan Paul Ive was born on 27 February 1967 inChingford, London, United Kingdom.[9][10] His father, Michael Ive, was asilversmith who lectured atMiddlesex Polytechnic, and his grandfather was an engineer.[9] While attending secondary school, he was diagnosed withdyslexia.[11]
According to a March 2014 interview withTime, Ive was inspired to become a designer by his teenage love of cars. He investigated car design courses in London, including one at theRoyal College of Art, but was repelled by the students: "The classes were full of students making vroom! vroom! noises as they drew."[12]
Ive studied industrial design atNewcastle Polytechnic, where he was introduced to a form of Germanic design which originated at theBauhaus. The Bauhaus expressed the idea of only including what is needed into designs. This philosophy can be seen in his work with Apple.[13] While at Newcastle, some of his designs – including a telephone and ahearing aid – were exhibited at theDesign Museum in London.[9] He graduated with afirst classBachelor of Arts in 1989.[9]
Ive's designs at polytechnic garnered him the RSA Student Design Award in 1988 and 1989, which afforded him a smallstipend and a travel expense account to use on a trip to the United States.[14][15] He travelled to San Francisco, where he met designers includingRobert Brunner, who ran a small consultancy firm that would later joinApple Computer.[14] After returning to England six weeks later, Iveinterned at the product design agency Roberts Weaver Group (his college sponsor), where he impressed executives with his attention to detail and work ethic.[14]
After a year with Roberts Weaver, Ive joined a London-based design agency, Tangerine, inHoxton Square.[16] He designed a diverse array of products, such as microwave ovens, toilets, drills and toothbrushes for clients includingLG andIdeal Standard.[17] However, he became frustrated after he designed a toilet, bidet, and sink for Ideal Standard, and the company rejected the work, stating that the products were too costly and looked too modern.[17][18] He became unhappy with his clients who had different ideas.[17]
From 1990 to 1992, Brunner tried to recruit Ive to Apple.[14] During this time, Apple became a client of Tangerine. Ive worked on "Project Juggernaut" for Apple, investigating the future of portable computers and setting the stage for what would become the PowerBook.[17][19]
He was formally recruited to Apple as a full-time employee in September 1992.[17][14] Ive was initially apprehensive about joining Apple given the move from the UK to California.[14] His first major assignment in Apple'sIndustrial Design Group regarded the second generation of theNewton and theMessagePad 110.[17] A lack of emphasis on design during the early 1990s prompted Ive to consider quitting.[17]
Steve Jobs, who left in 1985 after being pushed away byJohn Sculley, was staging a return to the company and recruited Ive to join him in taking the firm in a different direction.[17]Jon Rubinstein, Ive's boss at the time, managed to retain Ive as an employee by explaining that Apple was "going to make history" under Jobs in 1996.[18]
Ive became the senior vice president of industrial design in 1997 heading up the industrial design team responsible for most of the company's significant hardware products.[9] Ive's first assignment in this capacity was theiMac, introduced in 1998 (he is credited with designing its translucent plastic case). The iMac helped pave the way for many other designs such as theiPod and eventually theiPhone and theiPad.[20] Ive described his rapport with Jobs in 2014: "When we were looking at objects, what our eyes physically saw and what we came to perceive were exactly the same. And we would ask the same questions, have the same curiosity about things."[17] Ive became the first human to make a public phone call with Jobs after he introduced the iPhone on 9 January 2007.[b] It was reported that Ive's desire for keeping the products as thin as possible may have led to the mechanically fragilebutterfly keyboard[21] and removing theMagsafe power connector,HDMI port, andSD card reader from the MacBook.[22]
Ive was given his own design office at Apple during the early 2000s in which he oversaw the work of his appointed design team, and he was the only Apple designer with a private office. Only his core team—which consisted of around 15 people from the UK, the US, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand (who had worked together for around two decades)—and top Apple executives were allowed into the office, because it contained all of the concepts, including prototypes, that the design team was working on.[17] Ive did not allow his children to enter the office.[18]
Jobs described Ive as his "spiritual partner at Apple", stating that
The difference that Jony has made, not only at Apple but in the world, is huge. He is a wickedly intelligent person in all ways. He understands business concepts, marketing concepts. He picks stuff up just like that, click. He understands what we do at our core better than anyone. If I had a spiritual partner at Apple, it's Jony. Jony and I think up most of the products together and then pull others in and say, 'Hey, what do you think about this?' He gets the big picture as well as the most infinitesimal details about each product. And he understands that Apple is a product company. He's not just a designer. That's why he works directly for me. He has more operational power than anyone else at Apple except me. There's no one who can tell him what to do, or to butt out. That's the way I set it up.[23][24][25][26]
The offices of Jobs and Ive inApple's Cupertino headquarters were linked by a covered corridor.[27] Ive delivered the eulogy for Steve at both the Apple employee memorial service and the family service.[28]
In 2011 it was reported that Ive was paid $30 million inbase salary with a $25 millionstock bonus for the year.[29] His compensation ceased to be publicly disclosed by the firm thereafter, rendering him the only Apple executive to be afforded such as provision.[29] A year later it was estimated that hisnet worth was£80 million.[10]
On 29 October 2012, Apple announced that Ive would "provide leadership and direction forHuman Interface (HI) across the company in addition to his role as the leader of Industrial Design."[30] With the 2013World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) announcement ofiOS 7 and Ive's role as principal, Apple press information was also updated to reflect his new title: senior vice president of design.[30] In the same press update, Ive stated that he hoped his best work was yet to emerge and that he preferred to be identified as a maker of products, rather than a designer.[30] On 26 May 2015, the firm announced that Ive was promoted tochief design officer (CDO), at the time one of only threeC-level executives at Apple along with CEOTim Cook and CFOLuca Maestri (Jeff Williams would be promoted to COO at the end of 2015).[31] On 8 December 2017, Apple announced that Ive would resume direct responsibility for the company's product design.[32]
Apple announced on 27 June 2019 that Ive would depart the company, stating that he would start an independent firm named LoveFrom, along with fellow designerMarc Newson, that would work with Apple as its primary client.[33][34] LoveFrom is known to keep a low profile.[35] Partners in LoveFrom includeMarc Newson andPeter Saville.[36] LoveFrom unveiled a minimalistic website in October 2021.[37] In July 2022, the consulting agreement with Apple was ended, thus ending Ive's relationship with the company.[38] LoveFrom works with a number of brands includingFerrari andAirbnb.[39][40] Ive is close friends with Airbnb chief executiveBrian Chesky.[41][42] Through Terra Carta Design Lab in 2021 and Charles's coronation in 2023, Ive produced designs forCharles III.[43][44] In 2023, Ive led the development of a foldable red nose forComic Relief.[45][46] In 2024, it was reported that LoveFrom was working with tech firmOpenAI to develop hardware focused onartificial intelligence, though details are scarce.[47]
Ive received an honorary degree from theRoyal College of Art (RCA) in 2009. On 25 May 2017, Ive was appointed Chancellor of the RCA in London, effective 1 July 2017, succeedingSir James Dyson.[48] In this position he serves a fixed five-year term as the Head of college, where he will govern the college as anacademic administrator.[48] Ive began running committee meetings, attending faculty meetings, and conferring degrees in the summer of 2017.[49] Ive said of the appointment: "I am thrilled to formalise my relationship with the RCA, given the profound influence the college has had on so many of the artists and designers that I admire."[50] Ive was still chancellor in January 2023.[51]
Ive is known for his minimalist, downplayed sense of style and presentation of self.[9][52] Chief among his public image is his "nearly shaved head and tightly trimmed beard".[9][10] It is estimated that Ive first shaved his head in atight buzzcut and coupled it withstubble when, in 2001, aged 34, he was promoted to vice president of industrial design at Apple.[53] His look had him referred to as one of the "100 Most Powerful Bald Men in the World" byGQ in their 2013 listing.[54] Known for its minimalist look,[54][14] it has inspiredHalloween costumes,[55] grooming regimens, and a small-scale fashion movement, among other things.[56][57]
He has been known to sport "signature looks" that include: multi-coloredpied-de-poule suits,[58] painter's pants,[9] canvas pants,[59] linenbutton down shirts,[58]Clarks Wallabees,[58] and mono-coloredt-shirts.[9][53] His favourite tailor is reportedly British clothierThomas Mahon.[9] Ive's voice, used inApple's marketing and promotional videos since 1994, has been noted for itsEssex accent and reserved style of speech.[60][59][61]
.jpg)
The work and principles ofDieter Rams, the chief designer ofBraun from 1961 until 1995, influenced Ive's work. InGary Hustwit's documentary filmObjectified (2009), Rams says that Apple is one of only a handful of companies existing today that design products according tohis ten principles of good design.[62][63] Ive contributed an essay to a 2011 Rams monograph,Dieter Rams: As Little Design as Possible.[64][65]
He is also said to have been influenced by theBauhaus tradition (known for its credosform follows function andless is more), which emerged in Germany during the 1920s and became a staple design approach adopted by theUlm School of Design during the 1950s. The Bauhaus / Ulm design style was also adopted during the 1980s by luxury automotive brandAudi, which also influenced Jonathan Ive's designs (particularly his work with Apple), and has garnered comparisons incolour stencil, structure, andlighting design.[66][67]
While he was attending secondary school atWalton High School inStafford he met his future wife, British writer Heather Pegg in 1987.[9] They have two sons.[9] His family resides in thePacific Heights neighbourhood of San Francisco, California.[9] Their home was purchased forUS$17 million in 2012.[9] While at Apple, Ive commuted an hour and a half from San Francisco toCupertino every day.[9] He said in 2014 that if his work at Apple ever became substandard, he would "make things for [himself], for [his] friends at home instead".[17] Ive also owns a house in theCotswolds.[68]
According to theSunday Times Rich List in 2019, Ive was worth an estimated £192 million.[69]
Ive is known to live a reserved, private home life and to shun publicity.[9]
Since his early years in England, Ive has expressed an interest in automobiles andautomotive design.[9] While in university he drove aFiat 500.[70] He frequently attendsauto shows and exhibitions such as theGoodwood Festival of Speed, where he serves as ajury member for competitions.[58][71]
It has been reported that Ive's preferred carmakers were all once-British:Aston Martin,Bentley, andLand Rover.[70] Ive has been linked to owning anAston Martin DB4,[58]Aston Martin DB9,[70]Aston Martin Vanquish,[70]Bentley Brooklands,[70]Bentley Mulsanne,[72]Land Rover Discovery 3,[70] and aRolls-Royce Silver Cloud.[58]
Ive has designed products for charitable causes, including a one-offLeica camera that set a world record auction price[73] and aJaeger-LeCoultre sports watch — one of only three — for anHIV/AIDS charity.[17] During this auction, Ive and fellow designer Marc Newson raised $13 million forBono'sProduct Red charity.[9] With matching fromthe Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and additional matching from the UK and US Governments, the total raised was $46 million.[74]
In 2023, Ive redesigned the Red Nose, the symbol ofComic Relief's Red Nose day, sold to raise money for charity.[75][76] He also designed the emblem for thecoronation of Charles III, which features arose,thistle,daffodil, andshamrock— traditional symbols representing the four parts of the United Kingdom – in the shape ofSt Edward's Crown. Ive described the choice of these flowers as being "inspired by King Charles's love of the planet, nature, and his deep concern for the natural world," and that it is intended to refer to the "optimism of spring".[77]
In 2023, LoveFrom announced its own scholarship programme, which is aimed at increasing representation in the design industry by supporting designers from all backgrounds.[78] The programme covers the full tuition of a student at theCalifornia College of the Art, theRhode Island School of Design and two students at the Royal College of Art each year.[79][80][81]
Throughout his career at Apple, Ive has received nominations and garnered awards for his work. He has been appointed aRoyal Designer for Industry (RDI),[82] anHonorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (HonFREng),[83] aCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2006 andKnight Commander of the same Order (KBE) in 2012.[84][85] He has receivedhonorary degrees from theRhode Island School of Design[86] andCalifornia College of the Arts,[87][88] and made an honorary doctor of theRoyal College of Art.[89] On successive Wednesdays in June 2016, Ive was awarded honorary doctorates at theUniversity of Cambridge[90] and theUniversity of Oxford.[91] In 2004, he was named the "Most Influential Person on British Culture" in a BBC poll of cultural writers.[92]
In 2012, He was knighted in Buckingham Palace; by then, he and his wife had become U.S. citizens, although they did not relinquish their British passports.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)According to Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs, the company's late chief executive gave Ive a unique position within the company. Jobs told Isaacson: 'He's not just a designer. That's why he works directly for me. He has more operational power than anyone else at Apple except me. There's no one who can tell him what to do, or to butt out. That's the way I set it up.'
Designer: Dieter Rams and Dietrich Lubs
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