Jony Ive on his time at Apple: "I was shocked by Steve's patience"
In a podcast, the former Chief Design Officer at Apple remembers his time at the company – and his collaboration with Steve Jobs.
Jony Ive in an Apple video.
(Image: Apple)
Time flies: in November, it will be five years since Jonathan "Jony" Ive left his post as Apple's celebrated Chief Design Officer. The ex-Chief Design Officer (CDO) now seems to be feeling a certain nostalgia for this soon-to-be milestone anniversary: In the podcast "Life in Seven Songs", he not only presented the most important pieces of music of his life, but also talked about his time at the iPhone manufacturer.
Difficult times before Jobs
In the show, he recalls, among other things, the time when Apple was not doing so well in the nineties. Ive had moved from the UK to California on his own initiative in 1992 to become part of the industrial design team. "That was a time when Apple seemed to be dying." He himself had moved halfway around the world for this "great company". He missed London and his friends and family. He also didn't understand the culture at first, switching from a small design company to a large corporation that irritated him. "And now [this company] was drifting towards irrelevance. (...) That was a very, very difficult time."
Then, in 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple, which was very decisive for Ive. Instead of toiling away – and hoping that his designs would be implemented – Ive was able to perceive genuine interest from the boardroom for the first time. He was shocked that Jobs had the patience, curiosity and interest to meet him. "He then spent so much time in the [design] studio, looking at what we were working on. These were all things that were very different to what we then developed further and then delivered." For Ive, this was a special time: "There was no such thing before and there hasn't been since" – which is obviously to be understood as a criticism of the post-job period.
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Leaving was very hard for Ive
Among the tracks Ive selected for "Life in Seven Songs" were "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" by The Police, "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" by The Temptations. There are also the soundtrack titles "Define Dancing" (Thomas Newman, from "WALL-E") and "Main Theme / Carter Takes a Train" by Roy Budd (from "Get Carter"). He chose "This is the Day" by Ivy as the final track.
Of particular importance to Ive, however, is "40" by U2: the song refers to Psalm 40, which reminds Ive of his departure from Apple. "Leaving Apple was a terribly difficult decision in some ways because I love this company so much. But there are just times when it's time for the next chapter." Today, Ive works with his own design company LoveFrom for various clients such as Airbnb and OpenAI. However, the collaboration with Apple has ended. He still thinks about Steve Jobs every day, says Ive. They saw the world in the same way.
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