Apple's legendary design team disbanded after jobs refused to obey cook

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3 Years later, , Jonathan · Ivy （Jony Ive） The reason for leaving Apple , Finally came to the surface .

you 're right , Indeed with The cook of .

2019 year , This is called “ Most like jobs ”, Give up Apple's position as chief designer , Say goodbye to your service 27 My old employer in , Set up another door .

This is almost the biggest personnel shock to Apple's design team .

Need to know , Jonathan yes Mac、iPod、iPhone、Apple Watch And the makers and designers of a series of Apple products , He was once regarded as the successor of jobs 、 For a time, it was more prestigious than cook .

at that time , Jonathan explained his resignation as “ Personal new pursuit ”.

Now , With a book called 《After Steve》 Books published , The deeper reason is exposed in the public view ——

Philosophy is not .

And take all this out of the cocoon , Maybe we should leave jobs 、 Cook came on stage and said .

Apple Watch Is the last straw

Time to go back to 2014 year ,Apple Watch On the eve of the conference .

after 2 Years to develop 、 After grinding , This new Apple product , Finally, I want to appear on the stage .

meanwhile , It also has a more significant identity ——

This is after jobs left , Apple launched Article 1 with a New product line .

Jonathan as design director , The right to speak about product design , At this time, it also reached an unprecedented height .

His personal boldness 、 The minimalist 、 The innovative style is Apple Watch It is vividly and vividly reflected .

For example, the material of the shell even uses 18K gold , With soft leather . In appearance and texture , Are close to the extreme .

And all this , In fact, it is all for his bolder plan ： hold Apple Watch Make it a fashionable piece .

For this reason, he thinks , about Apple Watch for , obtain 《Vogue》 The praise of is more important than the opinion of any technology critic .

How to deal with these fashion media ？

One tent , It became the key .

Jonathan suggested , They want to 2500 Thousands of dollars （ Renminbi equivalent 1.6 Billion ）, It is used to shovel off the site of the press conference 24 tree , Build a luxurious white tent .

To make this event , It looks like a high-end fashion show “ extraordinary ”.

At this moment, the contradiction intensifies .

The staff responsible for the apple press conference , It's hard to understand. “ Uproot trees ” How to do it , I can't accept the amazing cost .

Especially in cook CEO after , Apple has more strict control over costs .

And they think , Compared with the extreme display of appearance , Users should expect more about what the watch can do .

On the other side , Jonathan was tired of these arguments , For a time, he proposed the idea of leaving the company with cook .

Final , The contradiction was pushed to In front of cook .

stay 《After Steve》 In the description of a Book , The scene is full of drama ：

As we discussed Jonathan's ideas , Cook sat on a chair beside him and shook it gently .

As CEO, He had been counting on Jonathan —— The man jobs called his soul mate —— To lead product development .

The designer is so valuable to the company , So that he worried , If Jonathan leaves , Will cause investors to sell their stocks .

According to executives' estimates , Jonathan's departure will reduce Apple's market value at least 10%, about 500 More than $ .

Think of it here. , Cook sat down in his chair , And said, ：

We should do this .

That is to agree with Jonathan's value 1.6 Billions of “ Tent plan ”.

actually , This is just an externalization of Cook's and Jonathan's very different styles .

More friction is also reflected in daily In the process of working together .

For example, cook pursues function 、 The pursuit of pragmatism , Not very concerned about the appearance of the product , So he rarely visits Apple's design studio .

But in the past , Jobs almost Every day Will go to the design studio , Working closely with Jonathan .

Team building , Apple wants to build a design team with hundreds of people , Jonathan believes that the team should only maintain 20 people Just left and right .

And to stabilize Jonathan 、 Does not affect the company's share price , Cook then began to reduce Jonathan's job responsibilities .

2015 year , He appointed Jonathan as Apple's chief designer .

however , Jonathan is sitting in this high position , In fact, it is full of depression and fatigue .

Position 、 Changes in work content , So he gradually moved away from the front-line design of the product .

Product reviews that used to be conducted every week , Finally, I won't even do it once a month .

meanwhile , Some of Cook's actions also made Jonathan unhappy .

For example, cook hired a former Boeing Finance Director James Bell Serve as a director of the company , Replace the marketing director Mickey Drexler; Improve the voice of the company's financial department ……

Various phenomena 、 Pile piece , It's all written in four big characters ： Philosophy is not .

Final , It still took Jonathan to leave apple , ended .

2019 year , Jonathan attended the last apple conference .

Not long after , Then came the news of resignation .

Although the news came out suddenly , But you can obviously feel , The interior has already Be well prepared .

Jonathan first told the financial times , Announced that it will officially leave apple , Next, set up a design company LoveFrom, And will continue to participate in Apple's business as an outsourcing company , Apple will be its first customer .

On the other side , Apple officials also announced that they were on the shelves at the same time .

Cook commented that , Jonathan is unique in the field of design , Its role in Apple's revival should not be underestimated , from 1998 The groundbreaking iMac, then iPhone, To the latest Apple headquarters —— Spacecraft design , Thanks to him .

Jonathan said , I left my post nearly 30 Apple of , The core reason is personal new pursuit .

“ Some important projects have been completed , For example, it starts from 2004 Years of the project Apple Park.”

Since then , The person most like Steve Jobs officially bid farewell to apple .

On the way out , He called the design team together to see a film 《Yesterday（ Yesterday's miracle ）》.

The film explores “ The eternal conflict between art and business ”.

The disintegrating legendary design team of apple

And Jonathan's story , and Not a case .

Called Jonathan “ Number one deputy ” Of Daniel · Koste （Daniel Coster）, It's also in “ Philosophy is not ” In the dilemma of , Finally choose to leave .

1994 year , Daniel comes to Apple , Later, he became a member of the legendary design team of apple .

The first generation of color that helped Apple make a comeback iMac, It was from him .

after , He also participated in the development of various generations iPhone、iPad Development of ,Apple Watch The patent for the watchband is also named after him .

But a few years ago , Daniel is right iPad A new upgrade of appearance , Hit a nail .

at that time , His design makes the new style iPad It can be lighter 、 Smoother lines , The hand feel has been greatly improved , It has been recognized by many interior designers .

However , Apple's operations team rejected the design .

They think that , Such a design would mean developing new functionality from scratch 、 Redesign the internal logic of the fuselage , It will cost billions of dollars , And the short-term benefits of this expenditure are not obvious .

thus , This kind of iPad Design , Killed by the inside .

This cost conscious concept , It also frustrated many people in the design team .

2016 year , Daniel left Apple , Join in GoPro company , As design director .

The news , Give Way GoPro At that time, the stock price rose 16%.

Christopher · Skinner （Christopher Stringer）, Also a veteran of Apple's design team ,1995 Joined apple in .

His representative works except iPhone、iMac、iPad Outside , also Apple Pencil and HomePod.

However, in HomePod In the same year , He waved the apple away , Created its own sound brand .

Because in the development process , He realized that Apple was not going to HomePod Launched as a main product , It's just a “ hobby ” only .

This can lead to HomePod The development process of is slow 、 The functions are not complete .

and , The benefit that speaker products can bring to apple is really very limited , It's hard to compare iPhone、iPad Such core products .

thus , Christopher quit Apple , Created its own brand Syng.

alike , These problems also appear in the software design team .

Imran · chowdhury （Imran Chaudhri）,1995 Add apples .

He was one of the developers of Apple's multi touch technology .

2017 year , Imran leaves Apple , The reason given is ： The innovation breakthrough of the company is less and less , Can not satisfy his creation .

In addition to the designers mentioned above , also Doug Satzger、Daniele De Iuliis And many other designers , All in 2017 Left successively in .

And because Apple is different from the general giant companies , Its core design team size in the past 20 years , Keep it all the time 20 It's about size , So the departure of every member , Will bring certain influence to the company .

Now , Apple's design team , also Richard Howarth、Evans Hankey、Alan Dye Including several veteran generals in office .

But from 《After Steve》 You can feel clearly in a book , The number of departures far exceeds the number of incumbents .

One More Thing

It is worth mentioning that , About Jonathan , It seems that without jobs' control , His design was also roast by people for some time .

For example, it is jokingly called a thread inserting device Mac Pro.

And the first one Apple Watch Gold Edition , Cost as much as 3 Thousands of yuan , Intended to enter the luxury market .

However, this idea was not favored by some people in the watch industry at that time , Later this 18K The golden version of the product was also taken off the shelves by apple .

Reference link ：
[1]https://www.fastcompany.com/90741719/inside-the-dissolution-of-apples-legacy-design-team
[2]https://www.cultofmac.com/422916/why-departure-of-apple-designer-daniel-coster-matters/
[3]《After Steve》