NEWS ANALYSISIt doesn’t appeartohavebeena hostiledeparture,as
Apple’sofficialpressreleasestatesthatIveisforming
anindependentdesigncompanywhichwill countApple
amongitsprimaryclients.Technicallywe’re notyet
looking at a totally Jony Ive-free Apple, but it’s easy to
get the impression that we might as well be.
No longer will Ive be one of the main wizards behind
Apple’s curtains. As parody account @JonyIveParody
shows, Ive tends to be Apple’s public face more than
AppleCEOTimCookhimself.Withanyothercompany,
claimingthatoneperson’sdeparturecouldradically
changea companymightfeellikea stretch,butwe’ve
longknownthatAppleplaysbydifferentrules.With
Ive’s departure,thetechgiantfindsitselffacingits
biggesttestsinceSteveJobspassedawayin2011.
YoucouldalwaysfindsomemissesinIve’swork,
but his design philosophy helped create an aesthetic
that was immediately recognizable as ‘Apple’. Core
elements of Ive’s design sensitivity are so familiar that
it’s easy to poke fun at them, whether it’s the focus on
aluminium, the rounded corners, or the smooth, near-
buttonless edges of devices like the Magic Mouse.
Virtually all of the products we know and love from
Apple’srenaissance– roughly 1997 untiltoday – have
Ive’s mindbehindthemonsomelevel.
Rarelywashisworkaboutfluffforthesakeoffluff.
His design philosophy worked so well because there
was always utility stirred in with the beauty. Some of
us may complain about the power of a device like the
iMac, butthere’slittlequestionthatsuchanall-in-one
machinelooksfantasticwhenit’s proppedonadesign
studio’s maple tables.