“The idea of genuinely trying to make something great for humanity was Steve’s motivation from the beginning, and it remains both our ideal and our goal as Apple looks to the future.” — Jony Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Officer.
In 2016, Apple published a limited edition anthology, chronicling the last 20 years of Apple's designs simply titled Designed by Apple in California. The book is dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs.
“This archive is intended to be a gentle gathering of many of the products the team has designed over the years. We hope it brings some understanding to how and why they exist, while serving as a resource for students of all design disciplines,” said Jony Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Officer.
The book was written and curated over an eight-year period by Jony Ive and features photos by award-winning photographer Andrew Zuckerman. All of the photos were shot in a deliberately spare style that has become a hallmark of Apple's design aesthetic. The books 450 images illustrates Apple’s design process as well as its finished products.
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Summary
Chapters
Jony Ive's Introduction
See also…
Video Version
Summary
In this episode, Daniel Scrivner explores the book 'Designed by Apple in California' and reads the introduction written by Jony Ive. The book is a collection of Apple's designs over the last 20 years and serves as an archive of their work. Jony Ive dedicated the book to Steve Jobs, highlighting his essential role in the creation of these products. The book showcases Apple's design aesthetic and the evolution of forms and materials. It emphasizes the importance of simplicity and communication in product design.
Chapters
(00:00) Introduction
(01:19) Designed by Apple in California
(03:13) Objective Representation of Work
(04:11) Collaboration and Design Process
(05:05) Evolution of Forms and Materials
(06:05) Simplicity and Communication
(07:01) Dedication to Steve Jobs
(08:24) Book Overview
(09:51) Johnny Ive's Perspective
Jony Ive's Introduction
This is a book with very few words.
It is about our products, their physical nature, and how they were made.
While this is a design book, it is not about the design team, the creative process, or product development. It is an objective representation of our work that, ironically, describes who we are. It describes how we work, our values, our preoccupations, and our goals. We have always hoped to be defined by what we do rather than by what we say.
The actual products are, of course, incontrovertible. We have attempted to develop an approach to representing them that is equally impartial. The photography is analytical and spare, free from personal voice and its consequent subjectivity.
We begin this archive with the translucent iMac of 1998, and we conclude with the Apple Pencil of 2015. We have not included all our work in the interim, only those products that seem significant, that demonstrate learning, or for which we simply have affection.
The decision to stop somewhere, to not include our current work, and to not reveal the design of future products was fantastically hard. Many of us have worked with one another for more than 20 years, and we have learned a lot together. The products in this book are the result of a profoundly close collaboration between many different groups. We behave as one team with a singular goal; how we work enables what we make.
Designing and making are inseparable. Seeing something made, you appreciate its nature. Understanding the remarkable transformation of anonymous materials into recognizable products, you begin to understand that we don't arbitrarily create form. Fundamental ideas and shapes are derived directly from our knowledge of materials and manufacturing processes: bending a single piece of aluminum to make a stand or cutting a hole to create a handle rather than adding multiple parts.
We attempt to develop forms that achieve an integrity between external surfaces and internal components. Look at the first iMac. So much of the form was developed to be coherent and harmonious with the primary internal component, the cathode ray tube. You can see how forms and materials have evolved, driven by display technologies and components, as we have transitioned from spherical cathode ray tubes to flat-panel liquid crystal displays.
We strive, with varying degrees of success, to define objects that appear effortless. Objects that appear so simple, coherent, and inevitable that there could be no rational alternative.
Although we have been doing this for many years, creating something simple never seems to get any easier. Simplicity is not the absence of complexity. Just removing clutter would result in an uncomplicated but meaningless product. I think a product that is truly simple somehow communicates, with striking clarity, what it is and what it can do.
Above all, I have come to feel sure that human beings sense care in the same way we sense carelessness. I do think we respond, maybe not consciously, to something much bigger than the object. We sense the group of people behind the products, people who do more than make something work, people who sincerely care about the smallest unseen details, as well as the big idea and primary function.
For us, these products and projects have come to mark the passage of time. We cannot look at this archive without remembering the people and stories so essential to each product's creation. I cannot look at it without thinking of Steve Jobs.
This book is dedicated to him.
This is a body of work that would not exist without Steve. The many thousands of people who worked together would never have worked together. These products would never have been designed, never have been made, never have been used.
The idea of genuinely trying to make something great for humanity, to make a contribution to culture and to our community, has not been a sentimental afterthought. It has been our fundamental motivation, ideal, and goal.
We hope that this archive is seen as intended: a gentle gathering of some of the products we have designed over the last few years. We hope it brings some understanding to how and why they exist.
See also…
For more on Apple, Jony Ive, and Steve Jobs check out the following:
Jony Ives' CCA Commencement Address and Advice for the Graduating Class
Book Breakdown: “Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success”
Book Breakdown: “Finding the Next Steve Jobs: How to Find, Keep, and Nurture Creative Talent”
Enjoy!
Daniel Scrivner
Founder of Ligature: The Design VC
Video version
You can also watch me break down this essay on YouTube and subscribe so you never miss a video.
Essay Breakdown: Jony Ive's Introduction to "Designed by Apple in California"