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Despite the popularity of Apple's iconic designs, the creative mind behind them remains relatively unknown.
I'd like to ask Johnny Ive, our senior vice president of design, to come up and take us through that.
Without Johnny Ive, Apple wouldn't be Apple.
Good morning.
He created products that are not only functional, but emotional.
He made people feel something when they held an iPhone in their hand.
Design was in his blood.
His father was a silversmith and teacher who helped craft a new design curriculum for UK schools, from which his son benefited.
Mike Ive would constantly talk to his son about design.
Leander Caney's book on Johnny Ive describes how, when they walked down the street, Mike would point out the different types of street lamps to his son and how their shape affected how the light was cast.
Design offered him an outlet for his creativity, which is a common trait for people like him who have dyslexia.
As his Christmas gift, his father would give him full access to his workshop, where he could build anything his heart desired, so long as he sketched it first.
Johnny told Steve Jobs' biographer Walter Isaacson that, By the age of 13, he knew he wanted to be a designer, but he didn't know what he wanted to design.
When his work was showcased at a design conference, the leading London design firm Roberts Weaver Group was so impressed that it agreed to support him through university if Johnny promised to join the company upon graduation.
Johnny studied in the north of England at Newcastle Polytechnic, now known as Northumbria University.
The Bauhaus design philosophy that emerged in Germany in the early 20th century had made its way into British design schools.
Bauhaus emphasized minimalism, including only what is needed into designs.
Objects had clean lines, simple forms, and were pleasing to the eye.
That design philosophy heavily influenced Johnny, who brought the Bauhaus aesthetic to Apple.
While at university, Johnny interned with a design firm that was supporting him.
He had to design a pen for a Japanese client, and he realized that people like to fiddle around with their pens.
So he added a ball and clip mechanism to the top of the pen that served no purpose other than to give someone something to do.
This humanized the technology.
People didn't want to just write with the pen, they wanted to touch it and play around with it, much like how they play with their Apple products today.
Johnny worked hard as an undergraduate student.
When a friend visited his apartment, he found more than 100 prototypes for a landline telephone.
Creating numerous prototypes became a signature at Apple.
Even if the changes were small, he felt they were important to physically see, to know if they would be compelling to the user.
Although he designed tech products, he didn't consider himself a tech guy.
Growing up, the only computer that spoke to him was Apple's Mac.
It was a really profound moment.
I don't think I've ever had actually quite the same sense of wow with a product before.
He thought it was a lot easier to use than any other computer, and he believed the designers actually cared about the product and how consumers felt when they used it.
He told the Design Museum in London, The more I learned about this cheeky, almost rebellious company, the more it appealed to me.
The bursaries he received for his stellar work as a student gave him the chance to travel to Silicon Valley, where he visited the studio of a star designer.
Robert Bruner was impressed by Johnny's phone concept.
Unlike other student projects, it wasn't simply a mock-up, but included the internal components.
Bruner asked him to consider joining his design firm upon graduation, but Johnny had already promised to return to London to work for Robert's Weaver Group, which had been financing his education.
A few months later, Bruner helped Apple establish its own in-house design studio.
Up until then, Apple had contracted its design work out to a German firm.
After his big trip to America, Johnny submitted a report to the group that awarded him the travel bursary, writing, I immediately fell in love with San Francisco, and desperately hope that I can return there sometime in the future.
Back in the UK, he spent a year and a half with Robert's Weaver Group before he left to join the design startup Tangerine, co-founded by his friend, a former designer at Robert's Weaver.
At Tangerine, the four-person team designed everything for clients, from TVs to toilets.
Johnny designed a minimalistic home for a Scottish hairdresser that went on to win a prestigious prize.
But sometimes he found it frustrating working with clients who had a different vision than him.
For example, a major bathroom company was unhappy with Johnny's toilet designs, Raphael, Leonardo, and Donatello.
They were named after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The company claimed they were too modern and too expensive to produce.
The designs that he put his heart and soul into were literally flushed down the toilet.
So when the California designer who had been impressed by his telephone prototype came knocking again, Johnny couldn't resist.
Brunner was the head of industrial design at Apple.
John Scully was the CEO of Apple at the time.
Steve Jobs had been forced out of the company he co-founded and was trying to make his new software company NeXT succeed while keeping his other company, Pixar, afloat.
When Brunner hired Tangerine to work on some potential future products for Apple, the team speculated it was just a ploy to try to lure Johnny to California.
California was a long way from London.
Johnny also wasn't sure his wife would want to move so far from home.
But there were too many reasons to say yes.
Apple would allow him to focus on rather than the business side of a startup.
He could see a design through from start to finish.
Plus, he had fallen in love with a Mac.
So he packed his bags for the golden state.
Johnny's first big assignment at Apple was the second generation message pad, a personal digital assistant that laid the foundation for the iPhone.
He designed it to flip open from the top rather than from the side because then it wasn't culturally specific, as people in North America and Europe would want it to open from left to right, whereas people in Japan, for example, might want it to open from right to left.
He was always attuned to the needs of the consumer.
He won several awards for the message pad, though he really wasn't interested in accolades.
He was humble and focused on his work.
Unfortunately, Johnny's stellar design wasn't enough.
The message pad bombed due to battery It was a lesson learned, and in the future, Johnny made sure he could influence the engineering process as well.
Johnny quickly emerged as Bruner's second-in-command.
Bruner wanted his design team to come up with concepts that would excite people, the way they'd get excited over a new piece of furniture.
At the time, in the early 90s, computers were becoming increasingly popular in people's homes.
But they were big and boxy.
Johnny refined the design of the desktop Mac into a slim, flat-screen computer.
The first two units of the 20th anniversary Mac were given to Apple's co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1997.
Jobs was brought in as an advisor when Apple bought his company Next.
But the new Mac failed as well.
It was very pricey at $9,000.
Other computers were selling for less than half that of industrial design at just 29 years old.
But he had his frustrations too.
He felt Apple's then-CEO, Gilbert Emilio, had no desire to innovate.
His immediate boss promised him things would soon be different.
Emilio was quickly forced out as CEO, and Steve Jobs was back at the helm.
It had been 12 years since Jobs was ousted from Apple.
When he returned, he held a meeting of top our goal is not just to make money, but to make great products.
Jobs wanted Apple to focus on creating first-class products that people would be willing to pay a premium for, much like how people are willing to pay more for a Mercedes over a Chevy.
Jobs had a vision of what he wanted Apple products to be.
He told the New York Times, That's not what we think design is.
It's not just what it looks like and feels like.
Design is how it works.
He entrusted Ive to execute his vision of building beautiful and functional products.
Jobs told Isaac Sin that Ive has more operational power than anyone else at Apple, except me.
The first order of business was to create a new desktop.
Apple had many products, but no standout product.
The company was close to bankruptcy due to declining sales, as it faced competition from PCs with Microsoft's new operating system, Windows.
Engineers had played a leading role in the design process up until then.
They determined the size of the device, and then the design team had to design an enclosure that fit.
But when Jobs returned as CEO, the design team started calling more of the shots.
Ive constantly butted heads with John Rubinstein, Apple's head of engineering, who was actually his supervisor.
Engineers weren't happy that they were now forced to fit hardware into a design.
While thinking about the new computer, a member of the design team suggested it should be translucent.
This was a complete contrast to the dark, gray look of computers back then.
Ive loved the idea.
A lot of people at that point in time were nervous around computers, around technology.
So a clear goal was how we could make the product accessible and not intimidating.
Translucency made it less intimidating.
Ive also added a handle to the computer.
This was not for carrying, but to build a bond with the user, to make it seem approachable.
He explained to Isaacson, if you're scared of something, then you won't touch it.
I could see my mom being scared to touch it.
So I thought, if there's this handle on it, it makes a relationship possible.
The importance of a personal connection was reflected in the name of the computer.
The I in iMac stood for internet, but it also stood for individual.
It was a make-or-break moment for Apple when Jobs unveiled the iMac in May 1998.
The whole thing is translucent.
You can into it.
It's so cool.
Despite his enthusiasm, the reviews were mixed.
Journalists noted the lack of a floppy drive, which Jobs felt would date the machine.
He wanted something that represented the future.
A reporter with the Boston Globe predicted that the iMac will only sell to some of the true believers.
How wrong he was.
People went crazy for the iMac.
It went on sale for $12.99 and by the end of 1998, the iMac became the fastest-selling desktop in history.
The iMac had a huge impact on our culture.
Suddenly, it seemed like everything in the late 90s and early 2000s was transparent.
The iMac was constantly upgraded and also released in multiple colors.
It set a precedent for the iPod, which was constantly improved and released in colorful designs.
Jobs saw an opportunity to create a portable music device that relied on the latest digital technology rather than CDs.
He wanted something small enough to fit in your pocket and easy to use.
A wheel was a clever way to navigate through the menu.
Interestingly, there was no on-off button.
Any button could turn the device on and it turned off after a period of inactivity, which spoke to its ease of use.
The iPod was beautiful, besides the stainless steel back that was easily scratchable.
Johnny decided that the first iPod should be white to emphasize the simplicity and elegance of the design.
This was a breakthrough moment because white would become the staple color in Apple's lineup and is synonymous with the brand.
With Apple's success, Johnny was generously rewarded and was able to enjoy himself in his downtime and splurge a little.
He had an affinity for British luxury cars, which nearly killed him.
While driving with another Apple designer in the passenger seat, Ive lost control of his Aston Martin and struck a median.
The car was completely totaled.
But thankfully, both men survived.
And there was still a lot to accomplish.
The wheel on the iPod may have been a clever way to navigate through the menu, but what about something even more intuitive?
When the engineering team produced a multi-touch system as a demo, Ive knew it would be a game changer.
He decided to show it to Jobs privately because his boss had a tendency to flat-out reject ideas and Ive didn't want him to reject this one so quickly, especially in front of the entire team.
In this case, he had nothing to worry about.
Jobs agreed touch was the future.
The idea of a touch device led to the iPhone.
As with all Apple products, the iPhone was built in secret.
Most of Apple's employees were not allowed in the design He showed Jobs prototypes of top-secret designs on wooden tables outside his office, which inspired the big open tables at Apple stores.
The models were covered with a black cloth when not in use.
Ive believed nothing should detract from the iPhone screen.
He wanted it to look like an infinity pool, where the displays seemed to extend endlessly with no visible edges or boundaries.
Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.
Apple released the iPhone in 2007.
Hey Johnny, how you doing?
I'm good, how you doing?
Well, it's been two and a half years and I can't tell you how thrilled I am to make the first public phone call with iPhone.
The iPhone is widely regarded as one of the most influential product designs of the 21st century.
But there is one more thing.
Why not make the screen bigger and turn it into another product?
And we call it the iPad.
Although the iPad came after the iPhone, Jobs said the idea for a tablet came first.
Apple once again established itself as the standard bearer for innovative products.
By the time the iPad was released in 2010, Jobs had already been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Despite multiple treatments and surgeries, his health deteriorated.
A year later, in August 2011, he stepped down as CEO.
When he was recovering from his first bout of cancer, Jobs asked to see two people, his wife Laurene and Johnny Ive, as recounted in the book by Leandor Caney.
Jobs referred to Ive as his spiritual partner.
They had worked together for nearly 15 years and had lunch together almost every day.
One month after Jobs resigned from Apple, he died on October 5, 2011.
He was only 56 years old.
He famously said during a Stanford commencement address that death is very likely the single best invention of life.
It is life's old to make way for the new.
Jobs' family held a private funeral that four Apple executives attended, including new CEO Tim Cook, formerly Apple's chief operating officer, and Johnny Ive.
On the 10th anniversary of Jobs' death, Johnny wrote a touching letter about his friend, which was published in the Wall Street Journal.
I think about Steve every day.
He said he and Steve's widow, Laurene, are close.
When her brilliant and inquisitive children ask me about their dad, I just cannot help myself.
I can talk happily for hours, describing the remarkable man I loved so deeply.
I loved how he saw the world, the way he thought was profoundly beautiful.
He truly believed that by making something useful, empowering, and beautiful, we express our love for humanity.
Some wondered if Ive might return to the UK after Jobs' death.
In 2012, he was knighted and became Sir Johnny Ive.
But Ive remained at Apple for another decade and helped push for the Apple Watch.
In 2019, he left Apple to start his own design firm, LoveFrom, where Apple became his client.
He had purportedly grown disillusioned with Apple under Cook, which had begun to focus increasingly on selling software and services rather than on sweeping design changes.
Apple and Ive's design firm parted ways in 2022.
Apple would not be Apple without Johnny Ive.
The question now is whether Apple can continue to turn out beautifully crafted, innovative technology without his creative genius.