A-loo-minum is an element; glass is not

So, do you like them? I thought so. I had to educate Steve about glass (silicon dioxide) not being an element. Aluminium - sorry, a-loo-minum - is an element. Glass is a compound.

Apologies for not writing for such a long time. Those beautiful iMacs didn't just make themselves, you know.

Keyboard conundrums

Take a look at our keyboards. Pretty aren't they? Well, I think so:
Notice how they curve upwards, towards the user? That's the problem - I wanted a flat-ish design with a movable flap underneath, like with the older G4 era design:





Why? Because having a keyboard flat with the surface of your desk is better for your hands. Having the keyboard tilt up towards you is a bit more stressful to the wrists. Go on, try it and see.

With a flat keyboard your wrists are more or less straight, but with a tilted one your wrists are bent upwards. Over time this can be uncomfortable. When I pointed this out to Steve he said, yeah, true, but the market wants curved keyboards - it looks more sophisticated. And besides it's cheaper to make - fewer parts to assemble, you see.

It's like a V6 engine vs. a straight six: the straight six is actually better (see BMW) but the reason why many car companies make V6s is that people think they're more advanced or some nonsense. You can't undo a V6 but at least with our older keyboards you could prop them up to make them flat again.

Just an example of the small compromises that we have to make.

Two water glasses

I'm sorry about leaving so much time between the last post and this one. You know how it is at Apple: small teams working long hours at big projects... and loving it!

Right-o, then. Have a look at these two water glasses. They are both made by the same company, Libbey U.S.A. The first one is a mixing glass, the second is for drinks.

They are both straight and tapered, made of clear glass. There is no ornamentation, no fancy designs, patterns, printing or etching. And yet they are beautiful objects: a great example of the power of simplicity. However, the second one has a thicker base and this is what makes it slightly nicer than the other one.

The thicker base gives it more weight in the hand (remember: design is about form and function working together) and gives it nicer proportions. It has less capacity (16oz. vs 14oz.) which makes the first one more suitable as a mixing glass, its intended purpose.

So what's a mixing glass then? Well, you can drink out of them if you like but their purpose is to mix cocktails. How? Well, there are two common ways to mix a cocktail: place the ingredients in a shaker with ice; or pour them into a mixing glass.

What you do is put lots of small ice cubes in the glass, pour the cocktail ingredients in (their contact with the ice as they trickle downwards cools them), stir a little and then, making sure the ice doesn't fall out, pour the mixed liquid into a cocktail glass (on its way out the liquid will cool and mix a little more).

Simplicity usually has a lot of staying power: you won't ever get sick of a good, simple design. That isn't to say that nicely cut crystal is bad - on the contrary, nice crystal is exquisitely wonderful to behold if a little delicate. But there is so much cheap and nasty glassware going around and because most folks may not pay as much attention to the style as they do the price, the kitchens of the world are full of ugly, depressing and wishy-washy glasses which make life that little more 'blah'.

You can buy the first one here and the second one here.

If you can appreciate basic things like nice glassware, you'll be more likely to pay the higher price and enjoy them more. Even simple things like well chosen glasses can make life a little more interesting. Why be boring? Choosing merely functional objects doesn't make you smart, it makes you dull. It doesn't matter about how trivial the object is, it matters how much consideration goes into making and acquiring it.

Tutorials on how to appreciate good design

Every now and then I'd like to show you an example of great design and then, in a hopefully friendly manner, point out some of the reasons why it's so great. Think of it as an introduction to good design for everyguy/everygirl. I know you'd likely prefer to read about what Fake Steve and I are up to but I think that the more that the general citizen gets to look a bit longer at something, the more they'll be able to appreciate it - and refuse, in future, to go back to ordinary things.

This is important to me. It's my vision for the world. Yes, peace and harmony are important priorities. But lo, I am not a prophet nor a peacemaker (see Proverbs). I'm a designer and that is what I love (or if you're a Lutheran, what I'm 'predestined' to do). And to quote Steve, "Do what you love". There - two authorities!

Anyway, here's hoping you'll be able to get something from these little 'tutes'. I'll start next week. Have a great Easter break, everyone.

The idea for the iMac G4 came from this Italian lamp - or did it?

While we're on the topic of inspiration I want to show you a couple of pics than a reader from Australia sent me. He was in this high end interior design shop in Melbourne, Geoffrey Hatty Applied Arts, which has quite a reputation as I'm told. Anyway he spotted this rather curious white Italian lamp. The base is painted timber - or wood, for my North American readers - and it's a half-dome shape, similar in size but smaller than the base of the iMac G4.

A lot of people - I included - referred to the design as being like a sunflower. Think about if for a minute and see how similar a sunflower and a lamp are. They're different enough but similar enough to make things interesting don't you think?

Now your job is to ponder over whether we got the inspiration from this lamp or whether it's a coincidence. There are no wrong answers... because I'm not telling you!


And besides, the point is that there is inspiration everywhere. Sometimes your mind is ignited by things you see and sometimes it's ignited by things you don't - from the beyond. It can be difficult to determine which exactly has happened on a given occasion, but it's important to remember that ideas come from both places.

How not to be inspired by nature

Spiral? Beautiful. Dopey looking snail shell? Not so beautiful.

How nature inspires us

Nature makes the best medicine, did you know that? Well, you do now! But nature doesn't make computers (well...) or passenger aircraft. So we have to invent them. But we find that sometimes our machines work better if we do more than simply apply the mere laws of nature (read physics). Sometimes we have to step back from the fundamentals (technical laws) and see the big picture. Leonardo da Vinci saw how powerful and inspiring nature was, and so do many designers and engineers. Nature can be baroque, it can be minimalistic, it can be abstract, it can be surreal. So we have a lot to choose from.

So how does nature inspire us here at Apple? Well, it's not always obvious. But have a look at this 'hockey puck' mouse we did back in '98 for the first iMac:



We based that on something so simple you'll probably gasp: a drop of water at rest. Brilliant or what? But the problem was that due to its regular shape, the user had to keep looking at it to ensure it was correctly oriented (we made a similar mistake but in a different way some years later - can you guess?). I don't mind that we had to change it. But the worst thing was hearing it referred to as a hockey puck. Nobody in the popular press has ever called it the 'water drop' mouse. Which would have been brilliant because a couple of years later the company released OS X and its interface was called... Aqua.

Time for a new car?

You know, I like my Aston Martin DB7. But in recent years, AM has released a few nice cars that are even more beautiful still. So it might be time to upgrade. What do you think?

Here's the DB7:



And here's the DB9:



I think the DB9 looks nicer. Smoother and more aggressive at the same time. Better proportions: notice the nicer, more solid front end of the DB9 and the flimsy one of the DB7 with its headlights set further back. The DB7 is trying to be an E-Type but without the grace - and the E-Type is a little over-rated anyway. Actually it sometimes reminds me of the current Jaguar XK - nice enough but not as nice as the new AMs.

But you know, you do get used to your car after a while and even though you can afford a nicer one, you start thinking how annoying it is to go through the process of test driving and filling in papers and updating your insurance company and all that malarkey.

Awards are nice, but...

Just a couple of days ago we were handed an award for "consumer product design". Interestingly enough it was for the iPod Shuffle, the smallest and cheapest piece of hardware we make.

It's true: winning awards and prizes gives you that 'top of the world' feeling. No doubt about it, people. However, the best rewards are not awards but a kind word from someone who bought your product and took the time to tell you that they really, really love what you did. Because we do love what we create, and when you put love out you get love back.

My lord, I'm starting to sound like Steve! Can't have that now, can we?

Tower redesign

We're currently finishing work on a new design for the Mac Pro (née G5) tower. It's about due for a replacement, but not quite yet.

The previous tower case, starting with the blue and white G3 and ending with the mirrored door G4, went from early '99 to late '03. That's a span of about five years. The G5's aluminium case, a much more spacious design (especially now due to the Core CPUs where we have room to fit four hard drives and two optical drives), is into its fifth year ('03 to present and counting).

So, a change is imminent. We're not sure whether to change early or late this year - or whether we should keep this model going until next Jan. We don't really need to but at least we're ready if Steve gives the go-ahead.

Thought you might like to know: when we changed to the a-loo-minum tower from the polycarbonate G4 tower, some people said they preferred the 'squeaky clean' look of the latter. But after the new Xeon replaced the G5, we had all this free space (for more drives) and now even those who prefer the old tower are happier.

And I noticed that sometime after the G5 launched, Sun had released a tower similar in appearance to ours. I don't mind it at all but I still prefer ours. I think it's fine for others to copy us but it seems that few if any can actually improve on our stuff. I think it's because we think about things deeply, and this shows in not just the aesthetics but the functionality. And you can't just copy that.

Introduction

Good evening (well, it's evening here in the West Coast anyway). Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ive, Jonathan Ive. You can call me Jonny if you like. Just no 'h' please, right?. Nah, just kidding with ya! I work at Apple, Incorporated in Cupertino, USA. I was born in the United Kingdom, made a name for myself as an industrial designer and was blessed enough to be asked by Apple to fly all the way over to Cupertino and design computers for that great company.

One evening I was having a fake conversation with Fake Steve. I was having a Martini (the only cocktail worthy of a capital letter, except maybe the Manhattan even though I don't like those) and he a glass of tom-ay-to juice. We had finished a discussion about the last details to add to the iPhone (which we might call the Apple Phone anyway - Steve just enjoys giving people he sees as inferior a hard time - brilliant, I reckon). I was asking him if he enjoyed the feedback he got from his weblog and he seemed quite enthusiastic about it. As you've noticed he posts several times a day occasionally.

And the thought occurred to me that maybe I should start a little blog of my own. I mean I love what I do but you know what? I like to play around with designing (or talking about designing) things other than computers. And a good outlet for this would be to get in contact with the Collective Internet and see what kind of inspiration I can get.

Besides, I don't like interviews, and hopefully this little journal of mine will give enough information to those interested. I'll still give the odd interview once or twice a year, but you know, I really don't need those once-a-week, five-minute jobs where the interviewer just asks the same questions as the last guy (I wonder how Steve puts up with all those quesitons about Apple's future products - but he's totally okay with that, that is just part of the job).

Plus, there's a lot I have to say about my own work and that of others - designers, artists and so forth. This could be the best place to vent about it. I'm quite busy (I'm working about 70hrs a week, sometimes more) but I think one or two posts a week is a fair target to aim at. No pressure that way. And if I post more, that's fine, too.

BTW I was having a hard time choosing the blog title, then I looked outside my window at my car and got inspired. :-)