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Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
awesome
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
 
2016-11-16, 18:55

I think a ridiculous product would be a similar book from Microsoft or Samsung. I think with Apple, the claim that the book provides value is much stronger.

There's another argument, not that Apple shouldn't be selling their superior design monograph but that they shouldn't have even bothered to produce one in the first place, that even an hour of Jony Ive's time spent thinking about this book is too much when he should be glue-gunning Xeons into Mac Pros or whatever. But I think that argument is also weak, and the reason why is that Apple is a company made up of people. This means that, yes, those people have egos and care about things like their "legacy." But much more importantly, it means that those people also leave and retire and die, and new people have to learn Apple's way of doing things. This is of extreme importance to Apple, because Apple's way of doing things has been enormously successful.

Imagine that Jony Ive had decided that he wanted to pass on what he has learned in his career so far, and wrote a treatise enumerating his principles of design. Such a book would have huge educational value, would it not? Not just within Apple, but to the design world at large. It would cause an immediate sensation among the people that care about chamfers and fonts. Jony Ive and his team have shaped some of the most popular products in history and defined and redefined what the very idea of "high technology" looks and feels like. Who wouldn't want to study their guiding principles? Could Apple afford not to document them?

I would posit that this is that book. In a way, it's the least ego-driven design treatise imaginable: rather than pompous paragraphs pontificating on the importance of blah blah blah, it's simple photographs highlighting the end result of those values and in doing so, making the principles themselves clear. It shows, rather than tells, and it shows a great deal.

Viewed as a record of what Apple design is, I'd even argue it would be not just unfortunate for it to be recorded in a less Apple-like form, it would be less accurate as an example. Appleness is making a custom paper and a custom ink so your white can look white and not just blank.

Jony Ive leads the most renowned industrial design studio in the world. If he led an independent Ive & Co., a monograph like this wouldn't just be expected at this point in his career, it would be anticipated. Of course, Jony Ive's studio is owned by Apple, which is its only "client." But that doesn't mean that the people that work there care any less about putting "their book on the shelf," so to speak, and if anything it makes it extra important for that "client" to preserve their values.

and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong

Last edited by Robo : 2016-11-16 at 19:09.
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