Jony Ive Talks Designing For Apple, His Process [Video]

How do you design for a category that hasn’t been invented yet? That has been Apple design chief Jony Ive’s mission for the past two decades, and he has found unimaginable success. In a rare interview, Ive sat down with Vanity Fair to talk about his process, his life, and his work.

Interviews are rare for Ive, who prefers to design in peace, emerging only briefly for Apple’s events (often appearing in oft-parodied videos discussing the design).  The only other interview I can think of, was for the documentary ‘Objectified’.

Surprisingly, Ive’s design team hasn’t seen much turnover in his 16-year current tenure. “No one has voluntarily left”. We also learned the origin story for Apple’s infamous bare-wood tables found in their stores. The tables were originally central in Ive’s design lab, and he liked the way that they showcased the product so much that he insisted they be placed in Apple’s stores.

*Watch Next: Jony Ive talks design in the film ‘Objectified’*

Ive also took the opportunity to knock competitors. When asked why he brought back round edges for the iPhone 6, and 6 Plus, he commented that he noticed that many large phones from competitors were “big and clunky”. Competitors had been “seduced by a great feature into making a crappy product”. As the phone got wider, Ive felt that rounder edges were necessary to make it more comfortable in the hand, and to make it feel “less wide than in reality it was”.