Apple lead-designer Jonathan Ive received his Knighthood in London on Wednesday, May 23, to become a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) for his outstanding achievements in design and innovation.
In a rare interview with UK's The Telegraph, published on Wednesday in two parts, Ive said the project Apple is currently working on is the most important one, and emphasized how much simplicity, philosophical integrity, bravery, focus, and commitment matter when developing products with high standards.
Values
"We're keenly aware that when we develop and make something and bring it to market that it really does speak to a set of values," Ive told The Telegraph. "And what preoccupies us is that sense of care, and what our products will not speak to is a schedule, what our products will not speak to is trying to respond to some corporate or competitive agenda...We're very genuinely designing the best products that we can for people."
Ive joined Apple in 1992 and became Senior Vice President of Industrial Design in 1997, when Steve Jobs returned at the helm of the company. Jobs and Ive worked together to transform Apple into the huge consumer electronics company it is today. The two worked closely together, and in his biography Jobs described Ive as his "spiritual partner." Ive answered only to Steve Jobs.
Simplicity
Ive is a big fan of simplicity, as Part 2 of The Telegraph's interview details. "Our goal is to try to bring a calm and simplicity to what are incredibly complex problems so that you're not aware really of the solution, you're not aware of how hard the problem was that was eventually solved," said Ive. "The quest for simplicity has to pervade every part of the process. It really is fundamental."
"We tried to develop products that seem somehow inevitable. That leave you with the sense that that's the only possible solution that makes sense," Ive further told The Telegraph. "Our products are tools and we don't want design to get in the way. We're trying to bring simplicity and clarity, we're trying to order the products."
Apple's Current Project
When the interviewer asked Ive what he would most like to be remembered for, Ive did not point to any of his past achievements, as some may have expected. "What we're working on now feels like the most important and the best work we've done, and so it would be what we're working on right now, which of course I can't tell you about."
It is difficult to determine what Ive could be referring to. The current project could be the greatly rumored and highly-anticipated iPhone 5, a rumored Apple TV, or perhaps the redesign of Apple's MacBook Pro laptops, which are expected to have a thin design and adopt Apple's Retina Display technology. Or perhaps it is something entirely new, that hasn't even been rumored yet. Either way, "the most important and best work" is definitely a confident and intriguing statement. You can find Part 1 of the Telegraph's interview here, and Part 2 here.
