While I’ve been doing research on all of this interactive media, I’ve been keeping Apple in the back of my mind. I recently bought an issue of Fast Company solely because Jony Ive (Apple’s Senior Vice President of Design) is on the cover. Other than that, I would never read this magazine.
This issue is the “10th Annual Innovation by Design Issue” and it focuses on design drive success, a the 54 Best Designs of 2013 and of course, Apple as the cover story. I have always been aware of how Apple takes design into consideration (industrial design of courses). Let’s be honest, their products look sexy. I think the iPhone 5 is one of the best looking devices I have ever owned. Even the new MacBook Pros. Their sleek. It’s because of Ive, not Jobs, that Apple has these brilliant and gorgeous designs. In Issacon’s biography of Jobs, he points out the sort of obsessive quality Ive has with his work. When working on the packaging for the first iPhone (could have been a different model), Ive made at least 100 different boxes that the iPhone could be packed into. He took everything into consideration; making sure not waste any material, what would the customer take out first, how neatly arranged the charger and wires are. It’s things like that I really appreciate.
The article in Fast Company talks about how Apple basically took a leap attempting to merge design and technology together. Computers and laptops didn’t have to be ugly and clunky. For a consumer, they could look beautiful. Same goes for the OS. Apple OS X (code named Aqua at the time) moved away from boring black and gray windows and backgrounds. I feel like this is something that has been integrated into a creative’s professional life. A creative tool created by creatives. That’s how I always looked at Apple. Yes there are general consumers out there that use Apple products for the basic things. But even they can see the quality they hold. This is something I really want to narrate in my interactive narration; the marriage of design and tech together at Apple. (I also need to pick up a copy of Bloomberg Businessweek’s issue highlighting Ive, Cook and Federighi). Maybe this could be narrowed down even more? We’ll see.
Some links I’m posting here for now:
A snippetof Objectified. This segment features Jony Ive. I should actually watch this whole film to get a better sense of industrial design.
An interview with Craig Federighi (SVP, Software Engineering), Jony Ive and Tim Cook. I haven’t had a chance to read this yet, but from what I’ve heard, it focuses on how Craig and Ive work together to make products work well together.
Here is that interview from Fast Company. How convenient that all of these interviews about Apple and design are just popping up.
And they’re latest AD Campaign that focuses on their design (the first video is pretty awesome).