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Apple Designer Honoured By British Crown
metalcup writes "The vice-president for design at Apple, the man behind the iPod and iMac, has been inducted into the Order of the British Empire as a Commander (a CBE honour)." From the BBC story: "Mr Ive started working for Apple in 1992 but exerted a big influence on its products only in 1997 when Steve Jobs returned to the company he co-founded. Mr Ive's first design for Apple, the iMac, was hugely influential and has been followed by a series of other widely admired gadgets ... Since the launch of the iMac in 1998, Mr Ive has driven the design of almost every piece of Apple hardware. Landmarks include the original iMac, iBook, Power Mac, PowerBook, Mac Mini and iPod."
Well, at least it's one of the last ones of the year :P
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Apple narrowly edges Elton John as the fruitiest entity to receive an honor from the Order of the British Empire.
So the Queen is recognizing intelligent design?
*doh* I can't believe I just said that!
Now, if only Jonathan Ive could design products that were as durable as they are beautiful. We have all heard about iPods scratching, but other Apple products are just as bad. The top of my Mac mini was scratched within hours of buying it, due to resting a keyboard on it. It really is amazingly scratch-prone. I have heard that iBooks suffer from the same problem (although not as severely).
Jonathan Ive is known for being hands-on in selecting the materials which the Apple devices are made from, but the plastics used in Apple products seem amazingly scratch-prone.
Add that to the hoops that must be jumped through in order to open entry-level Apple products, and you have products that look great out of the box, but are terrible after long-term use.
I misread the title 3 times or so as "Apple Designer Honoured By British Clown" and was like "Are they sure this is actually meant as a serious award?"... and I'm not even drunk (yet)!
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YTARY!
John Ball a math prof at Oxford, and Michael Pepper, professor of physics at Cambridge, also will receive a knighthood. That's also news for geeks.
There is no entry for John Ball on Wikipedia, anyone who knows more about him, might want to fill this gap.
Same for Michael Pepper, who is mentioned in the article on the Quantum Hall effect.
Bill Gates whas knighted too. Well, the honor in that's gone now...
It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
That's part of the magic behind Apple's product line. "Back in the day," computers were ugly, huge, clunky, off-white boxes that people generally kept out of sight of guests, perhaps in a spare room somewhere along with their model rockets and comic books--as per a good friend of mine at the time. And this was fine; computers were not mainstream in the individual citizens' world. As computers became more and more integrated in our lives, form became just as important as functionality.
The average non-l33t users of today consider the computer to be just another piece of furniture or just another appliance in their homes--and in many cases, they are correct. Computers are no longer just toys; they are important tools.
Apple's decision to make their products just as appealing outside as inside is a major part of why I am one of their many fans. When people see my Mac sitting on my desk they never ask me how fast it is, how big of a hard drive I have, or if I use high-speed or dial-up; they compliment me on a fine looking machine.
The British honoring the French, what has happened. The sky is falling, now if the british could honor Joan of Arc. Just a stupid joke. Happy New Year people, Johnathan Ive totally deserves it.
No Black or White only shades of Gray
It still amazes me that the British Empire uses the technique of honoring bravery of their Knights and Lords in todays society to honor people who now run multimillion dallor industry and come up with ideas like the iPod.
....
What does this mean to us? Nerds are as cool and as handsome as ye'old days knights in shinning armor
Exactly three hundred years after the man who got bonked in the head by an apple.
http://www.sharpened.net/images/reviews/Apple_iPod _3G.jpg
A non-descript white rectangle with chamfered edges, representative of many of his designs. To repeat myself: pure genius. Where does he get his inspiration?!
So HE is the clever guy designing all the sexy gadgets. I swear, between their computadora cases, laptops, and most definately the Ipod (Gen 4), Apple's got the best looking set of hardware. Why so sexy? I think its simply the golden ratio. Its why bodies look good. 1:1.6 is everywhere. The best looking body has 1:1.6 ratio in forarm to arm, waste to shoulders, thighs to calfs, calf and knee girth to ankle girth. Plus, for a side profile (on women) breast to waist width, and (on all, a side profile still) buttocks to thigh width.
So it only makes sense to put this ratio in every product: it makes it inherently more attractive, just because. And thats what this guy did. Width to height, scroll wheel width to Ipod width, etc. Ingenious, really. Its also the reason why I expect the video Ipod and the Nano to not sell nearly as well as their previous incarnations (Gen 4 and Ipod Mini). The Nano and Ipod Video are lacking in the 1:1.6 ratio department.
Since the summary doesn't even give the chap's full name, let alone any kind of non-technical biographical information, the following might be of interest: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Ive
Jonathan Ive was apparently "born in London and studied art and design at Newcastle Polytechnic before setting up his own design house, Tangerine, where he designed everything from hair combs and ceramics, to power tools and televisions. Apple was one of his clients, and was so impressed with his work for them that in 1992 they offered him a job in their Cupertino headquarters to turn around their ailing design division."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4566526.stm
An interesting quote (and an interested page in general).
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
Cheerio, chap! Cheerio~ hup hup hup
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
From now on, it's Sir Mac Fanboy to you!!
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I think the story is wrong in stating that Ive's first design for Apple was the iMac, because before that he designed the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (TAM) in 1997 , the eMate 300 (1997) and the Newton back in 1993.
I believe the Queen was given an iPod this year, though gets her courtiers to put songs on it for her. Perhaps this is why Mr Ive is being honoured!
He's Senior vice-president.
I think we've dropped that colonial shite for NZ awards, haven't we?
amen to that!
pass another beer in NZ!
These awards (as demonstrated by Gates and Geldof) are simply a means of the British Government of the day saddling up to its rich, trendy mates. Very occasionally a deserving person (someone whose work hasn't been properly renumerated) gets something.
Actually he will receive the honour from the Queen, not the Order. And the summary's use of "inducted" cries out "I was written by an American". It's not a Hall of Fame.
Unfortunately, there is a typo in the article. The correct spelling of the man's name is iVe.
OH...that says "crown," not "clown."
1. Earbuds that actually stay in my ear 2. A nano that wont scratch 3. An ipod control wheel I can use with mittens 4. A powerbook where the hinges don't wear. 5. A laptop that the apple symbol can't be covered over with a sticker on every TV show. 6. A mini-shuffle that I just put the whole damn thing in my ear. 7. A HD DVR so I can get rid of the stupid Tivo 8. A new Newton so I can get rid of my Blackberry 9. A time maching to go back and buy some apple stock 10. And last but not least can he design the Imeat that the kid just got into something that might sell 1 million units. From the humor of http://wallstreetfighter.com/
I thought Ives first design was the eMate?
Still a wicked design, IMHO.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
Use your nose.
My other account has mod points.
You were resting your keyboard on your Mini? Why? I don't understand. You don't mistreat beautiful things. Do you wash your new car with an old dirty rag? Would you prefer that the mini or ipod was made out the standard beige durable plastic? Hell, even if it was made of steel you'd still dent it and scrape it. Don't blame Apple because you're expecting a gorgeous under $500 consumer product to be impervious to wear.
I've scratched iPods, I believe you about the iMac mini. But I've had 2 iBooks over 4 years, and I can tell you scratching is not a problem. iBooks are the most durable laptops I've ever had. They might scratch, I dunno. But due to the milky color, you can't tell. Unless you pull out a loupe, they look near to brand-new for years.
This is in stark contrast to the Powerbooks, which dent quite easily.
I do have to agree with the other posters, if Apple's stuff didn't look so cool, you wouldn't care about the scratches. My two PC towers next to me have various scars and labels on them, and I don't really notice because they weren't something great to look at even when I got them. And they're both Antec Sonata cases, which are considered quite good-looking as far as cases go.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
After WW2, we very sensibly got rid of almost all the British Empire, except for a few bits of other people's countries (Gibraltar, Northern Ireland). I can't help wondering if the whole thing is some kind of convoluted official joke - sorry, you're not worth a "proper" honour, how would you like to be a Commander of a few dodgy tax havens and a place terrorised by gangsters?
We already have proper honours - the OM for the arts, the Royal Society for scientists, the Royal Academy for artists (tricky ground there though) - and I really do not know why we cannot simply have properly designated recognition for charity workers,business people and designers. Of course, the work of trawling through all those OBEs, CBEs etc. and deciding what recognition they should now be given would need a whole commission of well paid ex civil servants, so you would think they at least would support such a scheme.
Pining for the fjords
Perhaps he should design some voting machines or pacifying game machines for project iRaq?
Every piece of plastic I've ever owned has gotten scratched. My Sony Walkman had scratches on it. My Sony Discman had scratches on it. My cell phone has scratches on it. My damn swiss army knife and my sunglasses have scratches on them. Heck my VCR and TV have scratches on their cases just from being moved a couple of times.
Plastic scratches easily--get over it. I've had 4 laptops over the past 6 years and every one of them has developed scratches on the lid and bottom. But they were not noticed by most people because a) the plastic was matte not polished, and b) the plastic was grey or black.
I now own an iBook and 2 iPods. They don't scratch any more or less easily than my Kyocera cell phone or my swiss army knife or my other laptops. But more people seem to notice the scratches, because more people want to look closely at my iBook and iPod than at my cell phone. Apple products are seen as objects of "high design" and so people look more closely and maybe have higher expectations.
The whole idea of caring so deeply about a few scratches is kind of pathetic I think. If you want your possessions to be flawless things for you to admire, buy them and put them into a case. I want mine to do stuff, and I'll take precautions to protect their function but not their looks (I protect the screens but not the cases). I was brought up to view "babying" products as effete and pointless. Things should be useful first and if they're pretty that's a nice bonus...but keeping them flawlessly pristine is for collectors and people who don't do anything.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Isn't that irritating. It typically makes me notice it even more; and what's more irritating is that sometime on the same show, a different actor will have a PC, and the brand is rarely hidden. I think I've seen the Dell brand hidden once or twice; but I can recognize a Dell Latitude D600 almost as quickly as I can recognize a 15" Powerbook.
And, I hate the patches they use, typically some plain white thing stuck on matte silver (ugly as hell). I'm like come on, if your going to cover up the logo, just place a sleeve or cover over the entire back, or do a nice custom paint job or something. Maybe even take the time to find a sticker with a nice image to use.
I hope. Choosing to abandon the PowerPC and then choosing crappy Intel over AMD will be the death of Apple's computer business. All for a laptop chip. How sad.
He also designed the iMac's hockey puck mouse, the Powerbook G4's loose battery latch, weak display hinges, and wireless-blocking titanium enclosure, the original iPod's very useful but easily damaged scrollwheel and the 3rd generation iPod's silly touch sensitive interface (for a pocket gadget?!?), the cracking enclosure for the cube, the very scratchable transparent surface on the first white iBooks, and later, the iPod nanos, the uncomfortable no-button mouse and the long awaited multi-button mouse that doesn't right click properly, and the list probably goes on...
These were all flaws easily spotted right after the products came out, and fixed in later revisions (except maybe the right click problem with the new mouse). Granted the fixes were often well executed, but they should not have been needed.
Good design is not just about aesthetics. It's about making sure everything works, and works well.
I think this guy is way overrated. He has had many good ideas and has a good sense of aesthetics and trends, but he lets a lot of mistakes slip by, and it's that lack of attention to detail that keeps him from beeing a great designer (IMHO, of course).
I first read this headline as "Apple Designer Hounded By British Clown".
As a current AlBook owner, I'll agree with you that Powerbooks will dent, and scratch up a bit. Sure they might get beat up, but they also take a hell of a beating before they fail. I've personally dropped my AlBook 4ft. off of a lab bench onto a *concrete* floor. I have a couple dents, and my CD/DVD bay is bent a degree or two off of level
That's fucking amazing. When I heard the *crash* behind me I expected to turn around to at least a broken LCD
I'll take a dented laptop that keeps working perfectly
-S
**AA: a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes
The English still totally control two entire nations, and half of a third. And they violently put down resistance from the locals. Sure the empire is not as big as it used to be, but let's not pretend it's just "bits."
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Jonathan Ive is doing for computers what Raymond Loewy did for transportation.
His influence, like Loewy's, will be felt for a long time to come.
-ch
I actually like two of the more utilitarian car designs of the past, the jeep you mentioned and the VW beetle. Mass produced, nothing fancy at all, basic transportation, both now collectables. And still nice rides if you have one in decent shape for that matter. Whereas a lot of newer cars now leave me going "look, another four door white whocaresmobile!" they all look the same "wind tunnel rules" same to me kinda sorta, very little distinguishing pazazz to them. I can't see 40 years from now very many of them being collectable or holding their value. Granted, quite a lot of tech advances and modern creature comforts in newer cars, just talking about designs now in the "normal" price range of things, not high end.
This is the last thing that Jonathan Ive needs. The man is already absolutely full of himself, and this can only make things worse. Heck, he already has an entourage that follows him around campus and to Cafe Macs (Apple's cafeteria) for lunch, complete with matching shaved heads and black t-shirts. An ENTOURAGE, for cripes sakes. It was all I could do to keep from laughing whenever I saw them walk by.
If you can find it, there's a G3 Introduction Video (the kind they show about new hardware at Macworld keynotes) that shows Jonathan Ive with geeky glasses and rumpled red hair. A geek like the rest of us. Looks like J Allard isn't the original celebrity designer makeover story.
When you praise Jonathan Ive for his recent designs, please don't forget that he's responsible for a lot of the scars on our hands, given to us by beige, metal Power Mac boxes that were nearly impossible to open. He didn't bust out the organic teal designs until the eMate (that's right... it was Amelio, not Jobs who told Ive to go nuts), and even then, there were latches, hinges, and various mechanisms in those shiny new designs that worked poorly, or failed over time.
Without a doubt, Apple ID is great, and the iPod is an amazing example. But if I'm going to praise design at Apple, it's going to be its software visual designers. The Aqua interface was beautiful at launch, and has evolved into a new standard for system look-and-feel. Every OS and window manager strives to look as good as Mac OS X, and the credit goes to some very talented people who tend to get very little credit. Bas Ording and Imran Chaudhri pretty much invented Aqua, and kicked the ass of the Platinum look. Other designers like Brian Rose and Brian Frick have given so many of Apple's applications their beautiful icons and widgets.
I know for a fact that Steve Jobs values his teams of designers and engineers more than any one person at Apple. We should do the same. Congratulations, to all of Apple's designers and egineers. You make beautiful stuff that kicks ass, against all odds.