Hey guys, it’s Greg with Apple Explained,and today we’re going to explore the history of Jonathan Ive
Where he came from, how he got involved inproduct design, some of his career achievements, and how he ended up as Chief Design Officerof the most valuable company in the world
This topic was the second place winner oflast weeks voting poll and if you didn’t get to vote, make sure you’re subscribed,that way the voting polls will show up right in your activity feed and you can let me knowwhich video you’d like to see next
So Jonathan Ive is a legendary designer whowas responsible for the look of some of the most iconic products like the iPod, iPhone,iPad, and iMac
And although you may be very familiar withthe products he’s designed, you probably aren’t too familiar with the man himself,since he’s known to be a private person who avoids media attention
But in this video we’ll cover what we doknow about Jonathan Ive, starting with his early years in the town of Chingford, London
His childhood circumstances were comfortablebut modest
His father, Michael John Ive, was a silversmith,and his mother, Pamela Mary Ive, was a psychotherapist
They had a second child, Alison, two yearsafter their son’s birth
Jonathan Ive attended Chingford FoundationSchool, later to be the alma mater of David Beckham
While in school, Ive was diagnosed with dyslexia,but it never seriously effected his education
Ive was curious about the inner workings ofthings throughout his childhood and was fascinated by how objects were put together
He would carefully dismantle radios and cassetterecorders, exploring how they were assembled and how the pieces fit
Although when he tried to put the equipmentback together again, he didn’t always succeed
In a 2003 interview conducted at London’sDesign Museum he said, “I remember always being interested in made objects
As a kid, I remember taking apart whateverI could get my hands on
Later, this developed into more of an interestin how they were made, how they worked, their form and material
” Although he recognized his passion quite earlyin life, it took him some time to figure out what exactly he wanted to design
His interests ranged from furniture and jewelryto cars and boats
Ive’s father took him on tours around Londondesign studios and design schools and young Jonathan Ive took a special interest in acar design studio
He later looked into attending Central SaintMartins College of Arts and Design in London, famous for their automotive design program
But Ive found the school to be a bad fit dueto the other students being, as he put it, “too weird” since they were making ‘vroomvroom’ noises as they did their drawings
He looked elsewhere for a higher educationand eventually turned to Newcastle Polytechnic in the north of England, Ive decided productdesign would become his specialty
It was during his college years when Ive furtherdeveloped his signature design style based on German Bauhaus tradition
This design philosophy embraced a minimalistapproach, where designers should only design what is needed
And these were the same principles followedby former Braun designer Dieter Rams, and you can see similarities in the products eachof them have created
Ive also received several design awards throughouthis academic career, including the Pitney Bowes’ Walter Wheeler Attachment Award andtwo scholarships from the RSA
After he graduated, Ive took a trip to siliconvalley to explore up-and-coming design studios in the Bay Area
He immediately fell in love with San Franciscoand hoped he would return there sometime in the future
But until then, Ive returned to London towork for the Roberts Weaver Group, one of the top design firms in Britain at the time
Here, Jonathan Ive became friends with manyof his coworkers including Clive Grinyer, who quickly move on from RWG to join anotherdesign firm and eventually start his own consultancy
But Ive remained at RWG and eventually experiencedsome troubles with the company, mainly due to him being fresh out of college
First, they didn’t give him a substantialraise that he requested even though his talents warranted it
Second, RWG declined a special request fromtheir client Ideal Standard to assign Jonathan Ive to their project
They rationalized the decision by saying theyhad a studio of twelve designers and there was no way they could send a fresh graduatelike Ive to go and work with one of their clients
Jonathan Ive eventually left RWG out of frustrationand joined his old friend Grinyer’s design consultancy called Tangerine Design
And although Ive had more freedom over hisdesigns at Tangerine, they were often rejected by clients due to expense or deviation fromthe company’s existing product line
Another problem was clients accepting Ive’sdesigns, but reengineering them only to look half as good as it should have been
These rejections deeply frustrated Ive whopoured his heart and soul into each product he designed
But in fall of 1991, a visitor to TangerineDesign would help change all of that for Jonathan Ive
His name was Bob Brunner, and he was scoutingEurope for outside design firms to work with Apple on a secret project called Juggernaut
And Brunner was determined to get JonathanIve on board at Apple
At the time, Apple was being run by John Sculleysince Steve Jobs had been forced out six years prior
The desktop publishing revolution was puttingMacs in businesses all over the world and Apple had just celebrated its first quarterearning two billion in revenue
With all this cash, Apple was expanding itproduct lines and Sculley was investing heavily in R&D to speed up development of new products
Ive accepted a contract to consult on theJuggernaut project, but he was still working under Tangerine Design
Apple wanted him to focus on developing mobiledevices like tablets and laptop hybrids
Ive went to work and produced something calledthe “folio keyboard” that featured its own CPU, network jacks, and a trackpad
He also created a transportable desktop calledthe Macintosh Workspace that had a built-in, pen-sensitive screen, along with a split keyboardthat folded underneath and to the sides when not in use
At the end of the project, Jonathan Ive andthe other designers at Tangerine had developed about twenty-five models that were reduceddown to four principle designs
Brunner was very impressed with Ive’s contributionsand thought his designs stood out because they weren’t based on anything that Apple,or any other computer company, had done before
Now that’s quite an impressive amount oftalent considering Ive was just twenty-six at the time
Apple then flew him out to their Cupertinoheadquarters to make a final presentation and a job offer
Brunner pulled Ive off to the side and said,“If you really want to create something radical, you should come work for Apple fulltime
” Ive agonized over the decision
He had enjoyed working with Apple, but wasn’tsure if he wanted to leave both his homeland and his work at Tangerine
He also wasn’t sure whether his wife, Heather,would want to move to the States
Now we all know he eventually took the job,but what’s more interesting are the factors that influenced his decision
He appreciated that Apple offered a supportivework environment where he could focus less on day-to-day business operations and moreon design as a craft
Also, he had become frustrated with consulting
Working outside a company made it difficultto have a serious impact on product plans with true innovation
And finally, he got to live in San Francisco,the city he had fallen in love with years earlier
In September 1992, at age twenty-seven, Iveaccepted a full-time position at Apple, and his first assignment was to redesign the NewtonMessagePad
The first version was a failure, but Applewas hoping to change that with its second iteration
Ive worked tirelessly on the project and involvedhimself in every last detail
Even traveling to Taiwan to fix manufacturingproblems
But no amount of effort from Ive was enoughto save the Newton
Apple had made marketing and engineering mistakesthat plagued the Newton until it was finally discontinued
So it may not have been a commercial success,but Jonathan Ive’s Newton was a design success
It earned him four of the top awards in theindustry and the honor of being featured in the permanent collection of the San FranciscoMuseum of Modern Art
Now during this time, Apple was experiencingtremendous financial success and had more money than they knew what to do with
But just three years later in 1995, all ofthat changed
Windows 95 was released and cheap PCs beganto fly off the shelves, undercutting the Mac
In the first quarter of 1996, Apple reporteda sixty-nine million dollar loss and laid off thirteen-hundred employees
This caused Apple’s focus to shift fromdeveloping high-quality, well-designed Macs to pushing out the cheapest machines theycould possibly make
This was truly a period of no innovation atApple, and it destroyed Jonathan Ive’s moral
He said, “All they wanted from us designerswas a model of what something was supposed to look like on the outside, and then engineerswould make it as cheap as possible
I was about to quit
” But before he could, Jon Rubinstein, his newboss, talked him out of it
Rubinstein gave Ive a raise and told him thateventually the company would turn around and they’d have the opportunity to make history
And with Jobs return to Apple in 1997, Rubinsteinwas exactly right
Jobs brought focus to not only the companybut also Ive’s design group
Because he was young and inexperienced asa manager, Ive wasn’t exercising much discipline or leadership
It was creative chaos, with each designerworking on their own projects with virtually no coordination
Jobs refocused the design team and got themworking together on a new project called the Mac NC, which would later become the iMac
The team only had nine months to get it fromdesign to production
To meet this deadline, Ive implemented a radical,integrated design process that transformed the way Apple developed its products
The workflow was so successful that it becamepermanent, and it’s essentially the same system the design group uses today
So the iMac was released nine months laterand ended up being the best-selling Mac in Apple’s history up to that point
Jonathan Ive had finally found a company thatgave him the freedom to practice his craft effectively without limitations
In fact, part of Jobs reorganization of Appleincluded giving the design team power over any other group, including engineering
And because Ive was head of design, he hada tremendous amount of operational power at Apple, second only to Steve Jobs
Jonathan Ive went on to design almost everyhit product to Apple’s name
Including the iMac, iPod, iPad, iPhone, AppleWatch, and AirPods
But a fundamental problem with Ive has beenraised quite often, and that is, what will happen when he inevitably leaves Apple? A similar question was asked about Jobs beforehe passed, but Ive’s circumstances are quite different
It’s his hands, heart, and mind that aredirectly designing these products
And no one is quite sure whether his unmatchedtalent can be passed down to other members of the design team
But I’m confident that if any company couldfigure out a way around that obstacle, it’s Apple
So that is the history of Jonathan Ive, andif you want to vote for the next video topic, don’t forget to subscribe
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you nexttime
Where he came from, how he got involved inproduct design, some of his career achievements, and how he ended up as Chief Design Officerof the most valuable company in the world
This topic was the second place winner oflast weeks voting poll and if you didn’t get to vote, make sure you’re subscribed,that way the voting polls will show up right in your activity feed and you can let me knowwhich video you’d like to see next
So Jonathan Ive is a legendary designer whowas responsible for the look of some of the most iconic products like the iPod, iPhone,iPad, and iMac
And although you may be very familiar withthe products he’s designed, you probably aren’t too familiar with the man himself,since he’s known to be a private person who avoids media attention
But in this video we’ll cover what we doknow about Jonathan Ive, starting with his early years in the town of Chingford, London
His childhood circumstances were comfortablebut modest
His father, Michael John Ive, was a silversmith,and his mother, Pamela Mary Ive, was a psychotherapist
They had a second child, Alison, two yearsafter their son’s birth
Jonathan Ive attended Chingford FoundationSchool, later to be the alma mater of David Beckham
While in school, Ive was diagnosed with dyslexia,but it never seriously effected his education
Ive was curious about the inner workings ofthings throughout his childhood and was fascinated by how objects were put together
He would carefully dismantle radios and cassetterecorders, exploring how they were assembled and how the pieces fit
Although when he tried to put the equipmentback together again, he didn’t always succeed
In a 2003 interview conducted at London’sDesign Museum he said, “I remember always being interested in made objects
As a kid, I remember taking apart whateverI could get my hands on
Later, this developed into more of an interestin how they were made, how they worked, their form and material
” Although he recognized his passion quite earlyin life, it took him some time to figure out what exactly he wanted to design
His interests ranged from furniture and jewelryto cars and boats
Ive’s father took him on tours around Londondesign studios and design schools and young Jonathan Ive took a special interest in acar design studio
He later looked into attending Central SaintMartins College of Arts and Design in London, famous for their automotive design program
But Ive found the school to be a bad fit dueto the other students being, as he put it, “too weird” since they were making ‘vroomvroom’ noises as they did their drawings
He looked elsewhere for a higher educationand eventually turned to Newcastle Polytechnic in the north of England, Ive decided productdesign would become his specialty
It was during his college years when Ive furtherdeveloped his signature design style based on German Bauhaus tradition
This design philosophy embraced a minimalistapproach, where designers should only design what is needed
And these were the same principles followedby former Braun designer Dieter Rams, and you can see similarities in the products eachof them have created
Ive also received several design awards throughouthis academic career, including the Pitney Bowes’ Walter Wheeler Attachment Award andtwo scholarships from the RSA
After he graduated, Ive took a trip to siliconvalley to explore up-and-coming design studios in the Bay Area
He immediately fell in love with San Franciscoand hoped he would return there sometime in the future
But until then, Ive returned to London towork for the Roberts Weaver Group, one of the top design firms in Britain at the time
Here, Jonathan Ive became friends with manyof his coworkers including Clive Grinyer, who quickly move on from RWG to join anotherdesign firm and eventually start his own consultancy
But Ive remained at RWG and eventually experiencedsome troubles with the company, mainly due to him being fresh out of college
First, they didn’t give him a substantialraise that he requested even though his talents warranted it
Second, RWG declined a special request fromtheir client Ideal Standard to assign Jonathan Ive to their project
They rationalized the decision by saying theyhad a studio of twelve designers and there was no way they could send a fresh graduatelike Ive to go and work with one of their clients
Jonathan Ive eventually left RWG out of frustrationand joined his old friend Grinyer’s design consultancy called Tangerine Design
And although Ive had more freedom over hisdesigns at Tangerine, they were often rejected by clients due to expense or deviation fromthe company’s existing product line
Another problem was clients accepting Ive’sdesigns, but reengineering them only to look half as good as it should have been
These rejections deeply frustrated Ive whopoured his heart and soul into each product he designed
But in fall of 1991, a visitor to TangerineDesign would help change all of that for Jonathan Ive
His name was Bob Brunner, and he was scoutingEurope for outside design firms to work with Apple on a secret project called Juggernaut
And Brunner was determined to get JonathanIve on board at Apple
At the time, Apple was being run by John Sculleysince Steve Jobs had been forced out six years prior
The desktop publishing revolution was puttingMacs in businesses all over the world and Apple had just celebrated its first quarterearning two billion in revenue
With all this cash, Apple was expanding itproduct lines and Sculley was investing heavily in R&D to speed up development of new products
Ive accepted a contract to consult on theJuggernaut project, but he was still working under Tangerine Design
Apple wanted him to focus on developing mobiledevices like tablets and laptop hybrids
Ive went to work and produced something calledthe “folio keyboard” that featured its own CPU, network jacks, and a trackpad
He also created a transportable desktop calledthe Macintosh Workspace that had a built-in, pen-sensitive screen, along with a split keyboardthat folded underneath and to the sides when not in use
At the end of the project, Jonathan Ive andthe other designers at Tangerine had developed about twenty-five models that were reduceddown to four principle designs
Brunner was very impressed with Ive’s contributionsand thought his designs stood out because they weren’t based on anything that Apple,or any other computer company, had done before
Now that’s quite an impressive amount oftalent considering Ive was just twenty-six at the time
Apple then flew him out to their Cupertinoheadquarters to make a final presentation and a job offer
Brunner pulled Ive off to the side and said,“If you really want to create something radical, you should come work for Apple fulltime
” Ive agonized over the decision
He had enjoyed working with Apple, but wasn’tsure if he wanted to leave both his homeland and his work at Tangerine
He also wasn’t sure whether his wife, Heather,would want to move to the States
Now we all know he eventually took the job,but what’s more interesting are the factors that influenced his decision
He appreciated that Apple offered a supportivework environment where he could focus less on day-to-day business operations and moreon design as a craft
Also, he had become frustrated with consulting
Working outside a company made it difficultto have a serious impact on product plans with true innovation
And finally, he got to live in San Francisco,the city he had fallen in love with years earlier
In September 1992, at age twenty-seven, Iveaccepted a full-time position at Apple, and his first assignment was to redesign the NewtonMessagePad
The first version was a failure, but Applewas hoping to change that with its second iteration
Ive worked tirelessly on the project and involvedhimself in every last detail
Even traveling to Taiwan to fix manufacturingproblems
But no amount of effort from Ive was enoughto save the Newton
Apple had made marketing and engineering mistakesthat plagued the Newton until it was finally discontinued
So it may not have been a commercial success,but Jonathan Ive’s Newton was a design success
It earned him four of the top awards in theindustry and the honor of being featured in the permanent collection of the San FranciscoMuseum of Modern Art
Now during this time, Apple was experiencingtremendous financial success and had more money than they knew what to do with
But just three years later in 1995, all ofthat changed
Windows 95 was released and cheap PCs beganto fly off the shelves, undercutting the Mac
In the first quarter of 1996, Apple reporteda sixty-nine million dollar loss and laid off thirteen-hundred employees
This caused Apple’s focus to shift fromdeveloping high-quality, well-designed Macs to pushing out the cheapest machines theycould possibly make
This was truly a period of no innovation atApple, and it destroyed Jonathan Ive’s moral
He said, “All they wanted from us designerswas a model of what something was supposed to look like on the outside, and then engineerswould make it as cheap as possible
I was about to quit
” But before he could, Jon Rubinstein, his newboss, talked him out of it
Rubinstein gave Ive a raise and told him thateventually the company would turn around and they’d have the opportunity to make history
And with Jobs return to Apple in 1997, Rubinsteinwas exactly right
Jobs brought focus to not only the companybut also Ive’s design group
Because he was young and inexperienced asa manager, Ive wasn’t exercising much discipline or leadership
It was creative chaos, with each designerworking on their own projects with virtually no coordination
Jobs refocused the design team and got themworking together on a new project called the Mac NC, which would later become the iMac
The team only had nine months to get it fromdesign to production
To meet this deadline, Ive implemented a radical,integrated design process that transformed the way Apple developed its products
The workflow was so successful that it becamepermanent, and it’s essentially the same system the design group uses today
So the iMac was released nine months laterand ended up being the best-selling Mac in Apple’s history up to that point
Jonathan Ive had finally found a company thatgave him the freedom to practice his craft effectively without limitations
In fact, part of Jobs reorganization of Appleincluded giving the design team power over any other group, including engineering
And because Ive was head of design, he hada tremendous amount of operational power at Apple, second only to Steve Jobs
Jonathan Ive went on to design almost everyhit product to Apple’s name
Including the iMac, iPod, iPad, iPhone, AppleWatch, and AirPods
But a fundamental problem with Ive has beenraised quite often, and that is, what will happen when he inevitably leaves Apple? A similar question was asked about Jobs beforehe passed, but Ive’s circumstances are quite different
It’s his hands, heart, and mind that aredirectly designing these products
And no one is quite sure whether his unmatchedtalent can be passed down to other members of the design team
But I’m confident that if any company couldfigure out a way around that obstacle, it’s Apple
So that is the history of Jonathan Ive, andif you want to vote for the next video topic, don’t forget to subscribe
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you nexttime
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