>>> SEPTEMBER 1992
Jony Ive first joined Apple over
25 years ago, in September 1992.
Appropriately, he joined from
Tangerine, a design agency based
in London, but was reluctant
about moving to California due to
the toll it might put on his family.
Thankfully, he decided to move.>>> 1997
After the return of Steve Jobs in
1997, Ive was appointed Senior
Vice President of Industrial
Design, giving him responsibility
for the firm’s hardware design.>>> OCTOBER 2012
In late 2012, Ive was put in charge
not just of Apple’s hardware, but
of its interface design too. One of
his first tasks was to overhaul iOSin the form of iOS 7, ditching the
previous skeuomorphic touches
for flat design elements. Soon
after, he was appointed Senior
Vice President of Design.>>> JUNE 2019
In a shock announcement, Apple
revealed that Ive would be leaving
in 2019 to form his own design
agency, LoveFrom.A brief
timeline
WHEN STEVE JOBS returned to Apple (after a 12–year
gap running NeXT), one of the first things he tasked
Jony Ive with doing was designing the iMac G3. There was
a lot riding on this device — it had to save Apple — so it had to
be truly special.
Luckily for Apple, it was. Ive focused his designs on
removing the fear factor from computers. The iMac G3
came in a range of bright, playful colors; it had a handle,
encouraging you to reach out and touch it; and it was an all–
in–one, sacrificing as many wires as possible in order to aid
ease of use. It was a huge success that helped turn Apple
around and establish it as the company that truly understood
simplicity in tech.iMAC G3 1998
F
EW PEOPLE HAVE come to
embody Apple in the modern
era as much as Jony Ive.
Apple’s chief designer has had his
hand in every great project to come
out of Apple for the last 25 years,
from the iMac G3 and iPod to the
iPhone and iPad.
As his status grew, he started
designing Apple’s software and
even helped create Apple’s newHQ, Apple Park. If you saw
something made by Apple, you
saw something made by Jony Ive.
That’s why it was such a shock
when he announced his intention to
leave Apple. He’ll be leaving behind
an incredible body of work that truly
changed the tech world. So join us as
we take a look back over some of
Ive’s greatest hits — and a couple of
his misses, too.Image rights: Apple.
Feature
34 SEP 2019 maclife.com