Apple’s Chief Designer Ivy: minimalism is not simple
Apple’s Chief Designer Jonathan-Ivy (Jonathan Ive) minimalism is often mentioned in conversation, he is always the pursuit of simplicity in the product design style. However, he repeatedly stressed that minimalism is not a simple matter. “Design of the meaning of the Word can be very rich, and may also be referred to in a no. We don’t really talk about design, but talking about come up with creative and production process. “Apple’s Chief Designer Jonathan-Ivy said.
Apple’s Chief Designer Jonathan-Ivy: minimalism is not a simple matter
Design pursuing minimalism
In 1998, he designed the iMac, completely changed the fate of Apple, the company is on the verge of bankruptcy. In 2001, the iPod went a step further, completely change the music industry as a whole. In 2007 when the iPhone launched, it also affects the whole business. In 2010, the iPad come out more is to lead the development of a new type of computer.
Jonathan’s influence is incalculable. “Design and development of anything is very challenging. “He said,” our goal is to try to minimalism into you don’t know the answer, I do not know how hard it is in dealing with complex issues. ”
Jonathan in conversation, vocabulary of minimalism is often referred to. However, he would repeatedly stress the word with a special meaning. “Minimalism is not without a little messy, it describes is essentially a function and position of objects and products. No messy product can only be described as a neat product, but it is not a simple product. Minimalism is not a simple matter. Minimalism required to penetrate in the entire production process of the product. It is the most basic things. ”
Minimalism in hardware is not always consistent with the minimalism in software. Since the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch operating system since the rise of iOS, minimalism has been on the so-called “retro” brand–which is retained in the new design of decorative features of classical design. Thus, Mac computers and Apple iOS devices will appear in the calendar in a fake leather texture, even fake pins.
When I consulted when Jonathan, he declined to comment, only diplomatic tone of an answer, “my concern is to cooperate with other teams, submit product ideas, and then design the hardware, it is our goal and our responsibility. When it comes to these elements as you, I did not pay attention. ”
Looking for creative attention to detail
After so many successful products in the design, Jonathan had various creative turns against him and his colleagues. However, he continued to marvel at the creative process. “This is a wonderful process, is a process from scratch. “He said.
If you want to understand Jonathan, you need to understand his enthusiasm and honesty. This is not empty words, but devoted his life to pursue things. Jonathan said that he tends to him and his team to solve the problem of hard to measure his life over the past 20 years.
Looking for creative process, Jonathan and his team often thinking hard, learning new things, the creation of new processes, as well as to consult other experts in the industry. For example, in the process of designing the first generation iMac, Jonathan and his team had to consult people in the candy industry, how to built a candy color computer casing at the same time, maintaining its traditional semi transparency.
For excellence in design, Jonathan also made a special trip to Japan, watch the process of the Katana. There have been rumors on the Internet, Apple iPad 2 design inspiration part stems from this. However, Jonathan to be denied this. The story is so convinced is that Jonathan and Apple is famous for its attention to detail. “Sometimes, we will invest a lot of time and resources to address the most obscure small problems. Actually this problem does not affect the functionality of the product. We do, because we think that it is right. It’s like ‘ perfect the back of the drawer. You can say that people always see it, so there is no need to perfect it. Do I can’t say clearly why it matters, but I think it’s important. Only in this way can you prove that you really care about your product. We believe that they have a responsibility to do this. Is right to do, I find it hard to explain why. ”
Attention to detail ultimately Apple has become the world’s largest companies, and let the people form the impression of the company never fail. In fact, Apple also has many successful products, such as the Power Mac G4 Cube in 2000 publication, as well as the 2007 launch of Apple computer. “In most of a project implementation process, we usually are not aware of their ability to solve problems. For a long time, we don’t even know if I should give it a creative. Both the iPod and the iPhone, is the iPad, is true. “Jonathan said,” in many cases, when a project matured, we also have a solution when we are deeply disturbed, because you need to sell yourself and others the value, the market itself is always making you feel your product is not good enough. In many cases, we can realistically tell myself, ‘ it is not good enough, we need to stop. ‘ This is extremely difficult. “Jonathan said, knowing when to shut down a project is” one of my important responsibilities “.
Teams are the key to future success of Apple
Jonathan said that inside the Apple, each employee has a very strong sense of faith, that is to focus on their respective areas of expertise. However, when a product into the development process, this process will be very smooth. He said: “when we sat together when developing a product, it will be hard to determine who was the electrical engineer, who is a mechanical engineer, who are industrial designers. ”
Teamwork is an important part of the process. “In the Apple, one valuable thing is that many of the people in our design team worked together in more than 15 years, and learning together as a team is a wonderful thing. Making mistakes is an integral part of one of the most basic. Have not tried a lot of new ideas and suffered a lot of failure, is impossible to learn anything. ”
Last year was a year of major changes in Apple. New CEO Tim-Cook (Tim Cook) took over the company for a few months, the original Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs (Steve Jobs) had left the world. Jobs ‘ departure makes some analysts predicted that Apple appears inevitable recession.
As you may expect, Jonathan, “the way we develop products and two years ago, five years ago, ten years ago, exactly the same. Not only some of us remain the same way, our team maintains the same job for the whole company. ”
The team is the reason why Jonathan believes that Apple will continue to be successful. “We have become rather obsessed with a group of people together to learn, try to solve the problem. It gives us great satisfaction. When you fly, when you look at most of the passengers are used when you have joint development work with might and main products, you may think that this is a huge reward. ”
Text/Tencent technology