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."

Comments

Also designed...

[eMartin]

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).