Jonathan Ive 談論 Apple 產品設計的過程及理念

隨著 Steve Jobs 三年前令人痛心的離開后，Apple 公司這一接力棒便落到了 Tim Cook 和 Jonathan Ive 二人的手中。面對著各種的眼光及猜疑，兩位帶領人除了要把 Steve Jobs 一直提倡的創新理念傳承下去外，更需要尋找新的方向路線以便打造出更好的產品。而近日《紐約時報》便對 Apple 的總設計師 Jonathan Ive 進行了一次採訪，談論到品牌設計的進程，工作文化以及領悟出來的哲理等話題，更多的內容可通過下方的內容及這裡瀏覽完整訪問。

What does innovation culture look like at Apple under Tim Cook? How has it changed, if at all?

Innovation at Apple has always been a team game. It has always been a case where you have a number of small groups working together. The industrial design team is a very small team. We’ve worked together, most for 15 or 20 years.

That’s a fairly typical story here: Creative teams are small and very focused. One of the underlying characteristics is being inquisitive and being curious. Some of those personal attributes and hallmarks haven’t changed at all.

Often when I talk about what I do, making isn’t just this inevitable function tacked on at the end. The way we make our products is certainly equally as demanding and requires so much definition. I design and make. I can’t separate those two.

This is part of Steve’s legacy. Deep in the culture of Apple is this sense and understanding of design, developing and making. Form and the material and process – they are beautifully intertwined – completely connected. Unless we understand a certain material — metal or resin and plastic — understanding the processes that turn it from ore, for example – we can never develop and define form that’s appropriate.

Steve established a set of values, and he established preoccupations and tones that are completely enduring – and he established those principles with a small team of people. I’ve been ridiculously lucky to be part of it. But Tim was very much part of that team – for that last 15 or 20 years.

I remember clearly a time when we made plastic portable computers, and Steve and Tim and I sat down and said we wanted to build an incredibly thin and light portable computer. There was a whole range of challenges from an engineering point of view: How it worked in a new material, titanium. That meant we had to completely redesign and discover new partners to work with, hire a whole new organization.

I’ve worked for the last 15 or 20 years on the most challenging, creative parts of what we do. I would love to talk about future stuff – they’re materials we haven’t worked in before. I’ve been working on this stuff for a few years now. Tim is fundamentally involved in pushing into these new areas and into these materials.

Over years you develop a process – we, a team, develop a process – that process is incredibly vibrant and healthy and continues to grow and evolve.