Jony Ive was born on 27 February 1967 in London, England. He completed his education in industrial design at Newcastle Polytechnic. The mobile phones he designed in his student years were slim, simple and elegant enough to rival today’s phones. Ive, who worked on thoroughly modern designs, did not limit his drawings to phones. He was also designing technologically advanced watches. After completing his education, he joined the Tangerine design group in 1989. His first drawing project, a toilet and washbasin design that was costly and difficult to produce, ended in failure and was rejected by the client. But he did not give up designing; he even designed a toothbrush. Jony Ive joined the Apple family in 1992 and is today recognized as a design giant in the technology world. He became the creator of Apple’s remarkably simple and elegant products. He introduced Apple to white, the symbol of simplicity. It is known that all the designs he made throughout his life were white. Steve Jobs, known for his fondness for gray, did not care for white, yet he thoroughly embraced the moon-gray color that emerged through a distinctive shading technique. Moon gray has since become an indispensable color across all Apple products. Ive created these remarkable designs in his extremely secretive office, reserved for him alone, which he called the glass cube. His office, like his designs, is strikingly simple. Even senior Apple staff can enter this office, consisting of a desk, a chair and a plain lamp, only with special permission. Even his family is not allowed into the room. He is in fact forbidden from disclosing his designs to his family. There is not even a family photograph in his studio. Although it is not known exactly what inspires his designs, he has said that focus is essential in this work. “The most valuable thing I learned directly from Steve Jobs was focus,” says Jony Ive. While designing extraordinary products for Apple in this private office, he never neglects listening to music. He has said that his favorite music is techno.
Apple’s design giant is now a knight
Thanks to his worldwide success and unmatched designs, Jony Ive was honored by the British royal family in 2006 with the title of Commander (CBE). In 2011 this rank was elevated by the United Kingdom to a knighthood. Now Sir Jonathan Ive has taken his place among the many famous names in the technology industry who hold the title of knight.
