Jonathan Ive

January 5th, 2007

“Thoughtful, brutally honest, passionate and self-deprecating”

The Guardian has an extensive and well-researched profile of Jonathan that uncovers much new information about the man they describe as “the most important British designer of our time”.

In examining Jonathan’s life the article sheds new light on everything from his university days and family life, revealing several new tidbits of information through interviews with people he has worked with along the way:

• Known only because Jonathan disassembled one, The Apple iBook hides a secret toolkit beneath its polycarbonate casing for servicing.
• Adding to Jonathan’s air of mystery, Apple apparently does not know Jonathan’s exact date of birth (!) and it could not be printed in his Who’s Who entry.
• Jonathan lives in the Twin Peaks district of San Francisco. His wife Heather is a historian.
• Ive achieved first class honours in his Industrial Design degreee. His final year project was the creation of a pebble-shaped device to replace cash and credit cards. Describing his ability at the time his tutor Bob Young said: “It is a unique capacity that he has. You see his kind of talent probably once in a lifetime of teaching students,”
• Before joining Apple Jonathan was known for designing toilets for Ideal Standard. According to the article he sought inspiration from marine biology books and also designed VCRs. Martin Darbyshire, chief exec of Tangerine, says of the work he did there: “it still looks contemporary. He has a gift of not putting too much in, which is a danger for many designers. His passion to keep going and his attention to detail set him way, way apart from anything the majority of his contemporaries could produce”.

RSS for comments You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.