Jony Ive is My Hero
Can you recall a product you purchased based solely on that company’s advertising? The first thing that comes to my mind is my Apple Macintosh computer, purchased in 1984. The Super Bowl that year was held on January 22nd. Apple ran an ad that showed a young woman in track clothes running down the center aisle of an auditorium full of ghoulish-looking clones marching and seated in the hall. As she ran down the aisle, she was wielding a Thor-like hammer, and at the end of her run, she swung the hammer around several times and let it fly into the giant talking head on the screen. It exploded, and words began to scroll over the explosion. They said, “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh, and you will see why 1984 won’t be like ‘1984’.”
I was mesmerized—I got the reference to George Orwell’s 1949 book 1984, which spoke about the destruction of freedom and truth by a Big Brother government that used surveillance to stamp out independent thought and turn an entire society into clones. Were they the people marching in Apple’s ad? Or maybe they were the clones in corporate IT departments who only allowed IBM computers in their businesses. It didn’t matter. When Apple ran an unprecedented print campaign in March that inserted a 20-page review of the Macintosh into Time, Newsweek, Business Week, Fortune, Forbes, and Inc. magazines (can you imagine someone doing that today?), I was hooked. The opening headline said, “Introducing Macintosh. For the rest of us.” It was speaking directly to me.
I had just been promoted to VP of Parts and Service at Euclid Trucks in 1984. I could afford the $2,495 price tag (about $8,000 in today’s economy) for a 128k computer that was never going to integrate into my work in the Euclid offices. But I bought it as a statement of independence and maybe defiance. I still own that Macintosh and the printer that came with it, and I have never used a non-Apple computer since. I upgraded as the years went by, moving through several generations of the MacBook laptop (on which I am typing this article). It wasn’t easy—I fought a lot of IT department clones who would not accept the Mac on their network. I was busy swinging a hammer into their screens.
And that brings me to Jony Ive. I love the way my MacBook, iPhone, and iPad work—the seamless integration of content from one to another, the iOS operating system, and the entire Apple ecosystem support. But it is the industrial design and tactile sense of the products that attract me the most. The MacBook body starts as a single block of 100% recycled aluminum that is then CNC machined into shape. Lasers drill the microscopic speaker grille holes. Then, the raw shell is sandblasted with fine media to create Apple’s signature matte surface. That is Jony Ive's industrial design at work: attention to detail, and a touch, feel, and look that are unique. When you buy a new iPhone, even the box it comes in is a revelation. The way it is constructed is a work of art on its own.
In 2019, Jony left Apple to form a new company called LoveFrom. He has partnered with Marc Newson to design the Ferrari Luce BEV. It is a revelation. Many of the first reviews of this car have been negative—critics hate the overly simplified exterior and complain that Ferrari has lost the soul of its internal combustion engine past. But now, reviews are coming in after people have actually spent time with the car, and the tone is completely different. They talk about the execution of fit and finish and the beautiful blending of a digital and tactile interface in the car’s interior. That is the Jony Ive difference. He is a master of design and new materials application. My prediction is that the Luce will actually be a huge success for Ferrari and a true statement on how BEV differentiation can be designed. Attention to detail. Form, fit, finish. Tactile touch combined with digital beauty. Elimination of the unnecessary. Amplification of the essential. Ferrari and Ive lead the way.