Design Library – Design Museum, London

http://www.designmuseum.org/design/index.php?id=63

An interview with Jonathan Ive, Apple’s chief designer and resident hottie. I have the hugest of huge crushes on this man, and always pray for new product designs to be announced at MacWorld, as not only do I get sexy new tech, the sexy tech usually comes with a 5 minute promotional video with sexier Jon telling us about why it’s cool and sexy.

His designs are intelligent, beautiful, and user-friendly to a shocking degree. Witness the no-fan Cube, the tilting-screen G4 iMac, the G5 which is as pretty on the inside as the out, and the current iMac, whose tiny remote clings to the magnetized side of the computer when you’re not using it. None of this is news to Apple users (though, like me, I’m sure they get a kick out of thinking about it) – we derive a stupid amount of joy out of the form, as well as function, of our computers. I paraphrase my favourite Apple advertisement; a t-shirt that asked Why are Macintosh users so loyal?. The back of the shirt said Ask one. Perfect.

As it happens, the timing on this stumble is perfect – MacWorld 2006 is on Tuesday, and Mac users around the world are expecting insanely great things. As well as that, I’m expecting some quality time with Jon Ive 😀

A. In the 1970s, Apple talked about being at the intersection of technology and the arts. I think that the product qualities are really consequent to the bigger goals that were established when the company was founded. The defining qualities are about use: ease and simplicity. Caring beyond the functional imperative, we also acknowledge that products have a significance way beyond traditional views of function.

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