Chapter 42 Section 1 Master Ivy

Overcoming the hurdle of 1997, Apple suddenly became a "future manufacturing machine". Every two or three years, it would release a super cool product that was a lot ahead of its competitors, and it was like an IT machine. History of Development became a science fiction series. The chief director of this sci-fi blockbuster is, of course, Joe Gang after returning to Apple. But don't forget that there is another soul in this blockbuster, and his name is Jonathan Ivey. A senior employee who worked at Apple’s headquarters for many years recalled: “Jobs would also eat in the company’s restaurant. He usually dined alone, and few employees dared to talk to him. If Jobs was accompanied by someone while eating, then, Nine times out of ten that person is Jonathan Ivey."

The vast majority of Apple users may not know who this Ivey is.But if I tell you that Apple's coolest products, such as the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, are all designed by Ive, do you think that Ive is as amazing as Jobs?When you listen to music on your iPod, you might say, look, this is a Jobs product!Yes, this is indeed Jobs' product, but it is also Ive's design.When you make calls on your iPhone and play games on your iPad, you might think, Steve Jobs is so cool!That's right, Jobs is cool, but if you only talk about specific industries such as industrial design, interaction design, and visual design, this master Ive is 10 times cooler than Jobs!

Even to industry insiders, this Ive is quite mysterious.He seldom shows up at trade shows or gives interviews the way Jobs did.Everyone usually only knows that Ivey has won a large number of honors as a designer: In 2002 and 2003, he won the title of Designer of the Year from the London Design Museum consecutively. In 2003, he was awarded the Royal Industrial Designer Award by the Royal Humanities Society (RSA). In 2004, the BBC named Ivey "the most influential cultural figure in Britain".In addition, because of Ivey's magical ability to design electronic products into works of art, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) hailed Ivey as "Apple's Armani"-Armani is a high-end fashion brand known for its classics, elegance, and perfection. The name of the founder of the brand.

In 2006, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by the Queen of England.It is said that Queen Elizabeth II of England started using iPod in June 2005 and is also a fan of Ivey. In 2007, he won the National Design Award for the outstanding design of the iPhone. In 2008, also because of the iPhone, he won the MDA Personal Achievement Award. In 2010, Fortune magazine called Ive "the world's smartest designer" because of the outstanding design of Apple products. In some circles, Ive's design genius is revered to godlike heights.For example, people in the music circle do not recognize Jobs or Rubinstein, who is responsible for the development of iPod hardware, as the inventor of the iPod. They believe that Ive, who is responsible for the appearance and interaction design of the iPod, is the real father of the iPod. U2 frontman Bono Vox simply called Jonathan Ivey the Jonathan iPod.

In fact, Ivey's experience is not complicated.He is an Englishman, born in Chingford, a suburb of London, and he is also a young and precocious child.As a child, Ivy liked to study the construction of various things.He often disassembled the radio and tape recorder at home and put them back together, which made his parents furious every time.When he was thirteen or fourteen, Ivy knew that what he liked were beautifully designed and useful things. He was also interested in the most dazzling cars, daily necessities, furniture, jewelry and even ships. After graduating from high school, the thing Ivy most wanted to design was a car.He wanted to go to Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London to study design, but when he went to the school, young Ivy found that the students there were all weird and different, always deliberately When painting, he screamed strangely.Ivy couldn't stand this, so he went to Newcastle Polytechnic (Newcastle Polytechnic), which was later Northumbria University (Northum-bria University) to study industrial design.

At Newcastle Institute of Technology, Ive met another design prodigy, Clive Grinyer.Griya later recalled: "I have never met someone who is so focused on what he is doing. When doing graduation projects, most students can produce finished products by making five or six models, but Ivy I made more than 100 in one go.” In 1989, Greer founded a design studio called Tangerine, and then recruited Ivey, who had just graduated.Orange Studio is a small business. Designers must start from the role of consultants. They must not only impress customers with excellent designs, but also persuade customers with eloquence. At the same time, they must be proficient in business processes.Ivy is a dead brain, he just wants to study the design and has no time to look around.

"I really just like design. I'm neither into nor good at the business side of things," Ivey said. Such a person who only likes dull-headed design cannot gain a foothold in a start-up company like Orange.From 1989 to 1992, Ai Wei spent three years of depression and frustration. His designs were not applauded, and his work style was also incompatible with his colleagues. In 1992, Orange Studio received a project that changed Ivey's life.Apple, which was still in turmoil at the time, found Tangerine Studio and asked Tangerine to make several designs for the upcoming portable computer.At that time, Ivey was helping customers design bathroom appliances in a depressed mood. When he saw Apple's project, he suddenly became energetic, like a gourmet who had been hungry for several years and suddenly discovered a gluttonous meal.

Ive drives to Hull one gloomy afternoon to show off his latest toilet design to a client.That day happened to be the "Red Nose Day" organized by the British charitable organization "Comic Relief". The marketing manager of the client company wore a big red nose and tilted his head to watch Ivey's product demonstration.Ivey stood in front of the projection, trying hard to explain how novel and unique his design was, while peeking at the face of the marketing manager.The face, hidden behind the red nose, was sinister and eccentric.Ai Wei had a sense of foreboding.Sure enough, the toilet was criticized as worthless by the customer, and Ivy was rejected by the customer again.

Within a few days, the depressed Ivey flew to Cupertino, California, USA to demonstrate the portable computer he designed for Apple.Ivey had never presented his products in such a large and world-renowned company.In the Apple conference room, looking at the marketing managers and product managers in the room, Ivey felt uneasy.Unexpectedly, as soon as the presentation was over, people in the conference room were full of praise for Ivey's plan.A VP even walked up to Ive and said, "Your design is great! How about it, is it possible to join Apple and come work for us?" Join Apple?Ive never expected that he would have the opportunity to work at Apple, the mecca of designers.He likes computers, and he likes the appearance design of computers more. Like ordinary fans, he is fascinated by the classic designs of Apple II and Macintosh.Now, God actually gave me a chance to join Apple and participate in the process of designing these great products.The simple Ivey did not expect that Apple was already in a precarious situation without Jobs at that time, and even the then CEO Sculley could not protect himself.

Ivy, who returned to London from the United States, submitted his resignation to Greer.Greer later regretted losing Ive, saying: "We lost a great talent. If you ask me why I lost him, I think it's all due to the day he went to Hull to show the toilet design. The man with the red nose rejected Ive. From that moment on, Britain lost Ive and lost a great designer." Britain has lost Ive, but it is not so easy for the United States to get Ive, because Jobs has not returned to Apple. Working at Apple without Jobs, Ive found that Apple was not as good as he had imagined.In the first few years, Ive was designing the case of the Newton PDA and the tray of the Apple printer.Ive often came up with some outlandish ideas. He kept hundreds of models in his office, but none of them were appreciated by the top management.Apple's internal product line is chaotic and overstaffed, which made Ivey feel disheartened, and he once thought about resigning.

All this is because Jobs has not returned to Apple. Like Ivey, it is difficult to find one thing you like most in your life since you were a child. Like Ivey, it is even more difficult to find and join a company you like most when you are depressed. But even that doesn't mean success. Because it is really difficult to meet someone who appreciates and supports you in a company you like. Regardless, Ivy is one of the luckiest people on the planet. In 1997, after returning to Apple, Jobs discovered Ive like a treasure. Everyone knows the subsequent story. When Jobs discovered Ivey, he also discovered a transparent and colorful mysterious computer that Ivey was tinkering with. This computer later became the first heavyweight product that Jobs saved Apple: iMac. For a designer, being able to make a product like the iMac that is enough to go down in the annals of history in this life is enough.But the strength of Ivey is that he will throw out such a shocking thing every two or three years.From the classic rotary control of the iPod to the aluminum alloy unibody shell of the MacBook Pro, from the one-button control of the iPhone and iPad to the thin as cicada wings of the MacBook Air, Ivey’s brain is like the pocket of a doraemon. There is nothing. For his own design philosophy, Ivy summed it up like this: "We're trying to solve very complex problems in a way that minimizes the complexity to the end user. "We wanted to get rid of everything but the most basic elements, but you wouldn't know we did that. We went back to the beginning and asked ourselves: Do we really need this part? Can we use a part? Replace the other four? "I discovered a basic principle: the two things of shape and color determine your basic perception of a thing, whether it is intentional or not. "From a designer's point of view, what we're doing isn't a skin-changing game. It's a purely pragmatic thing. Design is about using your material in an extremely minimal way." In a sense, these design concepts Ive talked about are also Jobs' views on design.Because, in terms of design, Jobs and Ivey are inseparable. Without Jobs' return, Ive might have left Apple long ago; without Jobs' insight, Ive's excellent design may still be a model piled up in the office today; without Jobs' accurate prediction of the future and his keenness on the market Intuition, Ivy may not even be able to decide what the next design goal is. Conversely, without Ive's genius, Jobs may still be repeating his tragic life of repeated defeats at NeXT; without Ive's creative thinking, today's Apple products cannot be like exquisite works of art, Worshiped by countless "fruit fans" all over the world. In terms of design, Jobs and Ive were a natural match. Thomas Meyer-hoffer, a designer who used to work on Ive's design team, commented on the relationship between Jobs and Ive: "It was an incredible collaborative relationship. It was a company leader who valued design. , design leaders value the perfect fit for their company.” Every successful business has housekeeping skills.Apple's housekeeping skill is design, the unique, insurmountable aesthetic that sets it apart from all other companies.This threshold was created jointly by Jobs and Ivey. At Apple, the industrial design department that Ive is in charge of is a place where the whole company is heavily armed and guarded.Apple's own employees can enter and exit all other departments of Apple with their ID cards, except for the industrial design department that Ive is in charge of.Entry is strictly off limits to anyone except a limited number of executives and employees of Avi's own department. If any employee resigns from the industrial design department, I'm sorry, your resignation procedures are much more troublesome than those of other department employees.For example, you have to interview with a lawyer for several hours, sign various confidentiality agreements, and promise not to disclose any secrets after leaving the company. If the employees of the industrial design department go on a business trip, a basic rule is that the destination of their business trip cannot be disclosed to anyone, including their own family members.The meaning behind this seemingly harsh condition is that if your competitors know which city you are going to, they may guess which design company or which manufacturer you are going to cooperate with, so as to obtain a channel for extorting secrets . Today, the reason why Apple can dominate the field of computers and consumer electronics is that Ive and his design team have established a threshold that no one else can cross.Assuming that commercial assassinations are allowed, the two people Apple's competitors most want to assassinate must be Jobs and Ivey. As long as Ive is at Apple, the aesthetic characteristics and user experience style of Apple products will remain consistent, and it will still be three to five years ahead of its competitors in the foreseeable future.This raises a serious question: what would happen to Apple if Ive resigned?No one knows the answer to this question.We don't need to worry too much.If you have that time, why not take a look at the series of dazzling products jointly created by Jobs and Ivey, and take a look at the interesting stories behind those products. In February 1996, when "Fortune" magazine interviewed Jobs, who was still struggling at NeXT at the time, Jobs said: "If I ran Apple, I would squeeze out all the remaining value of the Macintosh and then move on to the next great product. The PC wars are over. It's all over. Microsoft won it long ago." Indeed, Microsoft, IBM, and Intel have long won the PC wars.But that doesn't mean Apple doesn't have any chance in the PC space. Jobs in 1996 certainly did not expect that when he became Apple's interim CEO a year later, Apple would still have enough opportunities to emerge in the field of personal computers.Although unable to compete in the Central Plains on the frontal battlefield, the golden combination of Jobs and Ivey has reshaped the trendy and fashionable brand image for Apple Computer in the face of a back-to-back fight. part of the market.