The amazing thing is that Apple (Steve Jobs?) succeeded in noticing this talented individual and promoting him to a position where his designs could be realized.<p><i>"With his dramatic return to the company in 1997, Steve Jobs began to revive Apple’s fortunes and return it to the industry leader that it is today. Jonathan Ive was instrumental to this turnaround, and under the new Jobs-led Apple he was promoted to Senior Vice President of Industrial Design and began a period of unrivaled creativity and innovation which continues to this day."</i> <a href="http://www.jonathanive.com/biography/" rel="nofollow">http://www.jonathanive.com/biography/</a>
I used to lecture at Northumbria where Ive studied. Everyone who knew him said he was a really reserved and pleasant guy who just truly loved to design. I think that Apples success lends itself substantially to this guy and his creative skill. He's definitely up there with Steve Jobs for helping the re-emergence of Apple
What I like is this sentence from Jonathan,
"We don't have to take this great intuitive leap to understand the mythical concerns of our users, because we are the users."<p>But I guess we also need to have taste.
"If you read the Jonathan Ive cuttings file not a big book, he rarely gives interviews you'll find the same few scraps of information over and over: Jonathan is shy, he's modest, he's private."<p>What?
"D&AD, as you'll have read elsewhere in this paper, is one of the most important dates in the creative industry calendar"<p>That's three paragraphs in, the fourth time that "D&AD" is used. It seems to be the important point of the article, being referred to maybe 50 times, yet the author never bothers defining it. WTF?<p>I'd never actually wished that there was a downmod button here before...