Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
So it seems to me there is one underlying issue going on in this thread:
It seems the Americans hate the British. Ive is British, the monarchy is British and that doesn't sit well with the Americans who feel Apple is their own.
I feel this is a shame as I have visited the States numerous times and really like the place.
It comes across as though us British are obsessed with our monarchy, that couldn't be further from the truth. Other countries are way more obsessed with our monarchy than we are.
I love what Apple have done and have been using Apple products since 1989 but never in a millions years did I care whether they were American, British, Polish or whatever else. They make awesome products and Ive was one of the people that happened to be part of that equation, I couldn't give 2 hoots what his nationality is and I'm pretty convinced if you asked any British citizen the same thing they'd agree because they're really not that bothered and insecure about their country, they're comfortable with who they are and that's about it.
In my experience as an American, we like the British a lot.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chrjy
Well deserved it is too. He’s an overrated clown.
Another example of people that get recognition, simply because of who they are;

Now be honest, if you’d have been the guy that did that you think you’d be lauded for it?
Same with Ive. If I’d have designed exactly that seal it would probably have been ignored.

But simply because this guy who probably decided to spell his name missing an ‘n’ did it, it’s magical.
If you are seriously unable to appreciate what Ive brought to the table, then there's zero point in trying to debate with you.

You have clearly decided your corner and you do not intend to budge on your opinion.
Having a conversation and trying to understand an opposite opinion is a good thing for all of us, it helps us to appreciate, have empathy, grow and much more. Closing your mind because your opinion can only be the right one is unfortunate.

I appreciate your opinion but there is a well balanced argument if you'd care to listen. That includes Banksy as well and any other artist that has made a name for themselves. If I created the piece you are referring to, would I get the same accolade? Absolutely not but you have to have created something meaningful in the first place as well as a little luck on your side.

There's plenty of people who will create awesome things and fail who deserve so much more but such is life.
 
Last edited:
His designs at Apple are not special. Are they better than designs at Ferrari? At any premium product? No. What's the name of the designers at Ferrari? Most don't know because the car is not accessible to most of us. That doesn't make the designs any less beautiful. Jony Ives is only known because the products are accessible to most people. What's so great about them? They have a bezel..ooooo... then this year they don't.... ooooooo.... whoopty doo. Oh wow look at that curve along the edge of the Watch. Yeah, my toaster has that. We love our Apple products for the role they play in our lives... yes, they look nice... they are only nice designs because most consumer products, computers, were ugly, so these looked nice. But there is no genius in their esthetics.
That's such an easy thing to say after someone has created it! Seriously!
Hindsight, what a wonderful thing.
 
Yep! The combination of Steve Jobs and Jony Ives, two geniuses that created an empire. RIP Steve. Cook didn't have what it takes to control Ives, so got rid of him instead. Apple still lives on the designs and choices of those days (thankfully), and when it tries to break away from them too much, like the 2016-2020 MBP/MBA, you get a disaster, or now when it tries to design something without Ives, like the 14/16" M1Pro/Max MBP's, they can successfully bring back the genius of Steve by simply undoing the mess of 2016+, but lose a touch of the prettiness.

NB: in case anyone is wondering, the M1 isn't Cook genius, it's Steve genius, it's merely a beefed up A-series chip, and was already discussed back in the Steve days, but they held off, because Intel wasn't in decline back then.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chrjy
Yep! The combination of Steve Jobs and Jony Ives, two geniuses that created an empire. RIP Steve. Cook didn't have what it takes to control Ives, so got rid of him instead. Apple still lives on the designs and choices of those days (thankfully), and when it tries to break away from them too much, like the 2016-2020 MBP/MBA, you get a disaster, or now when it tries to design something without Ives, like the 14/16" M1Pro/Max MBP's, they can successfully bring back the genius of Steve by simply undoing the mess of 2016+, but lose a touch of the prettiness.

NB: in case anyone is wondering, the M1 isn't Cook genius, it's Steve genius, it's merely a beefed up A-series chip, and was already discussed back in the Steve days, but they held off, because Intel wasn't in decline back then.
Totally agree. I think Ive lost his way without Jobs. The two together were an unstoppable force. If I think back to some of my older machines, they were nothing less than awesome. I then made the mistake of getting the butterfly keyboard MacBook Pro but my 16" 2019 has been pretty solid TBH (the TouchBar leaves a lot to be desired :rolleyes:). Although the new one looks so much like the Apple of old, I'd love to get my hands on it but can't justify it right now.

Funny how they've started to revert to very similar machines that Ive designed and yet the vast majority of people in this thread are shutting Ive down....bizarre!

By the way, still see you're rocking a 2015 MPB. Probably one of the best machines I ever owned....loved it. Then everything started to go pear shaped with later designs.
 
Last edited:
Don't let the cranks on MR discourage you, Americans by and large like the Brits. We don't even have strong negative opinions about your monarchy, and at worst consider it a humorous curiosity.
'Humorous curiosity' - that cracked me up! ?
?
 
I can't tell if this is serious or sarcastic.
definitely sarcastic. Who is Johnny Ive to be giving out awards to companies? I admit he is a pretty good product designer, but I don't know. It's a little strange to create this award from the new company he formed a few months/years ago.

I'm sure his letterhead could achieve much the same thing. I bet it is meticulous designed. lol. Honestly though if I as a member of the hot polloi received a letter from Ive on his letterhead I'd hold on to it for years and then auction it off in my golden years. However, if I was Jeff Bezos, I don't think it would matter to me all that much.
 
definitely sarcastic. Who is Johnny Ive to be giving out awards to companies? I admit he is a pretty good product designer, but I don't know. It's a little strange to create this award from the new company he formed a few months/years ago.

I'm sure his letterhead could achieve much the same thing. I bet it is meticulous designed. lol. Honestly though if I as a member of the hot polloi received a letter from Ive on his letterhead I'd hold on to it for years and then auction it off in my golden years. However, if I was Jeff Bezos, I don't think it would matter to me all that much.
Man, people are so quick to crap on JI that they wont even read the article. Jonny Ive is not awarding anyone anything; his company designed an award for a client and that client will do the awarding.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: freedomlinux
I'm not talking about thinking someone is godlike, everyone is a regular person but some are nicer people than others, I just respect Ive as a designer.
I don't really have any more, (or less), respect for him than I do my next door neighbour but that's fair enough.
 
If you are seriously unable to appreciate what Ive brought to the table, then there's zero point in trying to debate with you.

You have clearly decided your corner and you do not intend to budge on your opinion.
Having a conversation and trying to understand an opposite opinion is a good thing for all of us, it helps us to appreciate, have empathy, grow and much more. Closing your mind because your opinion can only be the right one is unfortunate.

I appreciate your opinion but there is a well balanced argument if you'd care to listen. That includes Banksy as well and any other artist that has made a name for themselves. If I created the piece you are referring to, would I get the same accolade? Absolutely not but you have to have created something meaningful in the first place as well as a little luck on your side.

There's plenty of people who will create awesome things and fail who deserve so much more but such is life.
Then your first sentence is sufficient. There was no need for there rest of your post.
Ive gets far more credit than he is worth and that is a reflection on our society. He brought a little to the table after that it was a lot of resting on laurels and general gushing.
 
Then your first sentence is sufficient. There was no need for there rest of your post.
Ive gets far more credit than he is worth and that is a reflection on our society. He brought a little to the table after that it was a lot of resting on laurels and general gushing.
Personally, I think the biggest contribution by Apple (and Jony Ive, and Steve Jobs by extension) is that they managed to get the entire tech industry to care about design. For decades, the industry’s conventional wisdom held that design wasn’t important. The industry’s leaders created crappy software and crappy hardware. Apple’s financial success has upended the industry’s value system by showing that there is money to be made in good design. Almost all of Apple’s competitors value design more today than they did a decade or two ago: Microsoft, Google, Samsung, HP, and we are all better off for it.

That to me is Jony Ive's legacy to the world. Not any one product he designed, but the paradigm shift in mindset amongst the various tech companies in adopting a design-led approach. Some are perhaps better (and worse) practitioners of it than others, but at least he got the conversation going.
 
Personally, I think the biggest contribution by Apple (and Jony Ive, and Steve Jobs by extension) is that they managed to get the entire tech industry to care about design. For decades, the industry’s conventional wisdom held that design wasn’t important. The industry’s leaders created crappy software and crappy hardware. Apple’s financial success has upended the industry’s value system by showing that there is money to be made in good design. Almost all of Apple’s competitors value design more today than they did a decade or two ago: Microsoft, Google, Samsung, HP, and we are all better off for it.

That to me is Jony Ive's legacy to the world. Not any one product he designed, but the paradigm shift in mindset amongst the various tech companies in adopting a design-led approach. Some are perhaps better (and worse) practitioners of it than others, but at least he got the conversation going.
Ok, yeah I'll take that.
But, I'm not so sure that the industry didn't care about design. I'd say they looked at the cost and decided that the outlay wasn't worth the return.
But as I said in an earlier post I do recognise that he might give certain things more visibility and traction than they may otherwise get even if his actual contribution to a specific instance/event was ordinary or miniscule.
 
Unless your neighbor is an accomplished designer I probably respect JI more as a designer than I do your neighbor.
Who cares if they designed something. My neighbour is a nurse.
She. Saves. Lives. Most days. Ive however……..man you people have such a skewed idea of someone’s worth.
 
Who cares if they designed something. My neighbour is a nurse.
She. Saves. Lives. Most days. Ive however……..man you people have such a skewed idea of someone’s worth.
You seem to have a really hard time with the subtleties of language.

I respect JI more than your neighbor as a a designer because she isn’t one.
I respect your neighbor more than JI as a nurse because he isn’t one.
Professionally speaking I respect nurses more than I do designers.

At no point did I say that JI is better than a nurse.

But at least you got to sound superior so there's that.
 
Last edited:
Man, people are so quick to crap on JI that they wont even read the article. Jonny Ive is not awarding anyone anything; his company designed an award for a client and that client will do the awarding.
I just realized that. The article said it was in partnership with. But it would still be a funny idea if he did create an award and hand it out himself. Lol
 
So it seems to me there is one underlying issue going on in this thread:
It seems the Americans hate the British. Ive is British, the monarchy is British and that doesn't sit well with the Americans who feel Apple is their own.
I feel this is a shame as I have visited the States numerous times and really like the place.
It comes across as though us British are obsessed with our monarchy, that couldn't be further from the truth. Other countries are way more obsessed with our monarchy than we are.
I love what Apple have done and have been using Apple products since 1989 but never in a millions years did I care whether they were American, British, Polish or whatever else. They make awesome products and Ive was one of the people that happened to be part of that equation, I couldn't give 2 hoots what his nationality is and I'm pretty convinced if you asked any British citizen the same thing they'd agree because they're really not that bothered and insecure about their country, they're comfortable with who they are and that's about it.
So you think people are making fun of Johnny because they don’t like the British and are obsessed with the British monarchy? Global companies have people working for them everywhere. I think most people in America understand that. Honestly I think Johnny is simply an average designer whose global importance stems from his time at Apple.
 
Totally agree. I think Ive lost his way without Jobs. The two together were an unstoppable force. If I think back to some of my older machines, they were nothing less than awesome. I then made the mistake of getting the butterfly keyboard MacBook Pro but my 16" 2019 has been pretty solid TBH (the TouchBar leaves a lot to be desired :rolleyes:). Although the new one looks so much like the Apple of old, I'd love to get my hands on it but can't justify it right now.

Funny how they've started to revert to very similar machines that Ive designed and yet the vast majority of people in this thread are shutting Ive down....bizarre!

By the way, still see you're rocking a 2015 MPB. Probably one of the best machines I ever owned....loved it. Then everything started to go pear shaped with later designs.
Oh man, I feel for ya. I almost "upgraded" my 2015 MBP a couple of times, as the butterfly machines did look sweet at first, and the 2019 16" was also even more tempting, but the DooshBar, ports/dongles, MagSafe, and being forced to Catalina (which had a lot of bad reports on these threads), were still a turn off, and my 2015 was still looking unbeatable, so held off. Glad I did, as it is now very easy to justify upgrading to a new 16" M1Pro MBP, especially seeing how well the M1 MBA's have aged in a year.

Yeah, the iPhone 12/13 looking almost identical to the iPhone 4/5 is a total crack up, but damn they look good, Ives truly is a genius.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chrjy
Oh man, I feel for ya. I almost "upgraded" my 2015 MBP a couple of times, as the butterfly machines did look sweet at first, and the 2019 16" was also even more tempting, but the DooshBar, ports/dongles, MagSafe, and being forced to Catalina (which had a lot of bad reports on these threads), were still a turn off, and my 2015 was still looking unbeatable, so held off. Glad I did, as it is now very easy to justify upgrading to a new 16" M1Pro MBP, especially seeing how well the M1 MBA's have aged in a year.

Yeah, the iPhone 12/13 looking almost identical to the iPhone 4/5 is a total crack up, but damn they look good, Ives truly is a genius.
Good luck to you re the new M1 16", I really don't think you can go wrong with that machine. It's like a blast from the past but only better. I'm not jealous at all!!!!! ?
 
  • Love
Reactions: sideshowuniqueuser
So you think people are making fun of Johnny because they don’t like the British and are obsessed with the British monarchy? Global companies have people working for them everywhere. I think most people in America understand that. Honestly I think Johnny is simply an average designer whose global importance stems from his time at Apple.
The truth is with many things, you need to be in the right place at the right time with some talent to back it up. Ive took a risk with Apple, they were practically on the verge of insolvency and obviously Jobs could see something in him. At least that's what the Steve Jobs biography states.

Between Ive and Jobs, they were an amazing team. Jobs managed to keep him under control whilst Ive was very good at design however you look at it. No one at the time within the industry was coming up with designs like that so to say he was mediocre is unfair at best in my opinion.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: sideshowuniqueuser
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.