Jonathan Ive interviewed by UK The Independent(Chinese ver.)
25 05 2008
(via Core77 , designsojourn)
Hmm…it seems that it’s a bit long between this new post and the last one. Anyway, I did work so hard for this translation because it’s an interview with a world renown designer Johnathan Ive from Apple, who are the designer behind Mac/Macbook/iPod etc, and he is a very low profile guy who have only a few media exposure.
P.S. I kept the original english part, so you can always refer back to the original meaning.
My favourite parts are:
“My goal is simply to try to make products that really are meaningful to people. “
“We push each other, we’re very self-critical and we’ll take the time to get the product right.”
“It’s easier for me to talk about my motivation, the focus on finding something that’s better and new and that becomes self-perpetuating. As you discover something new, as you get to the point where you manage to do something that hasn’t been done before or that other people have said it’s not possible to do, I think that just feeds into the creative process.”
[Extracted from The Independent ]
The boy from Chingford who puts the bite into Apple’s iconic design
那個帶給 Apple 獨特設計的 Chingford 男孩
Lined up in Jonathan Ive’s studio in Cupertino, California are four chunky Black Pencils. That’s capital B and capital P, because these are no ordinary pencils. They are incredibly rare D&AD Black Pencils. There are few creative awards more jealously coveted than a D&AD pencil. Yellow pencils can be career makers. But the elusive Black Pencil is a marker of creative genius.
在 Jonathan Ive 加州Cupertino 蘋果工作室列隊的是四枝矮矮胖胖的 “黑鉛筆” (Black Pencils)。那不是普通 capital B 和 capital P 鉛筆。它們是十分珍貴的 D&AD大獎 “黑鉛筆”。沒有幾個創意獎可媲美D&AD大獎。 “黃鉛筆” 獎可是事業決策者。但這難捉摸的“黑鉛筆” 獎卻是創意天才的標誌。
Last week Ive won two more of them, one for the iMac, one for the iPhone. He’s already got four. So now the senior vice-president of industrial design at Apple is a D&AD record breaker. Six Black Pencils, more than anyone else, ever, and in less than 10 years. Beat that Juan Cabral, creator of Cadbury’s Gorilla and Sony Balls.
原來已獲得了4 枝鉛筆獎，上週 Ive多贏了兩枝、分別是因為 iMac 及 iPhone 設計而得獎，現在他除了是 Apple 的工業設計高級副總裁外，更擊敗了Juan Cabral, Cadbury’s Gorilla 及 Sony Balls 的創造者，創下D&AD 10年內取得黑鉛筆最多的紀錄。
D&AD, as you’ll have read elsewhere in this paper, is one of the most important dates in the creative industry calendar, and it’s one of the few events to unite the creative talents of the advertising and design industries.
D&AD 如你已在這文章的得知，在創意產業的日曆內，它是一個十分重要的日子，集結廣告和設計行業人才，業內少有的活動其中一個。
Because for Ive perhaps the world’s most revered product designer D&AD matters, the people at Apple call me up. Would I like to talk to Jonathan? They don’t say it, but it’s a rare honour.
對於 Ive，也許是世上最受崇敬產品設計師來說，D&AD是要緊的。Apple 工作人員致電給我。我想與 Jonathan 對話嗎 ? 他們沒有說出來，不過那是一個難得的榮譽。
So I have one of those awkward transatlantic conference calls with the man who designed my beloved MacBook (on which I’m writing this piece), Jonathan Ive CBE, pictured.
因此，我被安排了一個有點不得體的，跨大西洋電話訪問，與該名設計了我最心愛MacBook 的男子對話（我就是用它寫這份作品） ，Jonathan Ive CBE (如圖)。
Asking him what good design really is seems like a good place to start. “Oh, that’s a tough question,” he groans. “The word design is everything and nothing. We think of design as not just the product’s appearance, it’s what the product is, how it works. The design and the product itself are inseparable.”
問他像怎樣的地方才是好設的起點。他苦惱地說:“哦，這是一個難題”。”設計這個字是一切(everything)也是零(nothing)。當我們想，設計並不只是產品的外觀，那就是產品全部，及其運作。設計和產品本身是分不開的。
Apple is unique, Ive says, by being in the hardware and the software games; design permeates through everything. “We have a very clear focus that all the development teams at Apple share, a focus around trying to make really great products.
Ive說: Apple 無論在硬件和軟件，遊戲上都是獨一無二的; 設計貫穿了整體。Apple 所有的開發團隊都抱一個非常明確的重點，就是努力創造真正優秀的產品。
“That can sound ridiculously simplistic, almost naive, but it’s very unique for the product to be what consumes you completely. And when I say the product I mean the product in its total sense, the hardware and the software, the complete experience that people will have. We push each other, we’re very self-critical and we’ll take the time to get the product right.”
“那聽起來是荒謬的簡單化，幾乎天真，對於一個產品來說，這點卻是非常獨特，完完全全的吸引你。當我說產品時，我指產品的全部，包括硬件和軟件，及給其用者的整個體驗。我們互相鞭策，反覆批判再加上無數時間和耐心，以取得最佳的產品。”
For many people working in the creative industries, the bedrock of Mac believers, Ive is a hero, a creative genius: the man who transformed computers from grey boxes to objects of desire, design statements.
對於許多在創意產業工作的人，他們是 Mac 信徒的基石，他們相信 Ive 是一個英雄、一個創意天才: 把電腦從一個灰色盒，變成一種使人渴望得到的東西、那是設計使命。
That’s what D&AD has recognised and rewarded. But you don’t have to be a creative purist to appreciate what Ive does. For everyone who loves Macs and iPods and iPhones for their intuition, for their clean aesthetics, for their leading edge, elegant functionality, Ive is the man who made technology both beautiful and accessible.
那也是被D&AD所肯定及獎勵的地方。不過你不一定需要是一個純創作人，才能欣賞 Ive。對於所有喜愛Mac 和 iPod 及 iPhone 的人，那是因為它們的直覺，它們的簡約美、及高雅功能，使 Ive 成為那個創造美(beautiful)與可觸及的(accessible)科技的人。
No doubt creatives the world over would like to know where Ive gets his inspiration from. So I ask him. “I never feel that I can answer this question in the way that people wish I would,” he admits.
毫無疑問，創意世界內各人都想知道 Ive 的靈感是從何而來。所以我詢問了他這個問題， “我從來也覺得我解答不了這個問題，儘管很多人都想知道答案。”他坦承地說。
“It’s easier for me to talk about my motivation, the focus on finding something that’s better and new and that becomes self-perpetuating. As you discover something new, as you get to the point where you manage to do something that hasn’t been done before or that other people have said it’s not possible to do, I think that just feeds into the creative process.”
“以我的推動力這點去回答會較易一點。專注尋找更好及創新的東西使我永不止息。當你發現新事物，你會設法做一些至今尚未出現，或對其他人而言，是不可能的事。我覺得那就是流進創作過程的原因。”
It helps, perhaps, that he’s designing products that he and his team love to use, in their jobs, in their lives. “We don’t have to take this great intuitive leap to understand the mythical concerns of our users, because we are the users.”
以些說的助了他不少，或許，因為他及與他一起設計的團隊，是在設計他們生活上，愛使用的產品。” 我們不用費很大的心力去瞭解用者不為人知的想法，因為我們就是用戶。”
Does he see advertising and design as close creative cousins? “There is an important relationship between the products of creative endeavour,” he explains. “And the breadth of creativity brought together by D&AD is what makes it unique.”
他是否認為廣告和設計是表親? “產品和創意努力是有著十分重要的關係” 他解釋說。”而那由被 D&AD 聚集的創意廣度更是獨特的。
But he doesn’t bring his creative sensibilities to bear in the advertising manifestation of his design work; he leaves that to Apple’s advertising agency TBWA\Chiat\Day. “I’m friends with some of the guys who work on our advertising but we focus on our relative disciplines,” he says.
他把廣告的成功歸功於Apple 的TBWA\Chiat\Day 等廣告代理公司，卻不是他對創意的敏銳觸覺。 “創作廣告的人員，有的也是我的朋友，我們都專注於各自的專業上。” 他說。
I sat next to Jonathan Ive at a D&AD ceremony many years ago. I had no idea who he was and by the end of dinner I still didn’t think he was anyone “significant”. He was charming, polite, quiet, no sense of self-importance, no desire for attention. Nice.
我多年前在 D&AD的典禮上，坐在 Jonathan Ive的旁邊，那時我並不知道他是什麼人，就是在晚宴的最後一刻，我仍不認為他是個什麼”大”人物。他那時已是很迷人、有禮、安靜、沒有半點自誇、沒有被注意的慾望。高雅的。
If you read the Jonathan Ive cuttings file not a big book, he rarely gives interviews you’ll find the same few scraps of information over and over: Jonathan is shy, he’s modest, he’s private. The boy from Chingford who became the British designer of his generation, lives quietly in San Francisco with his family, enjoying few obvious trappings of success beyond the odd Aston Martin (no doubt loved for its beauty rather than a symbol of status).
你看到有關 Janathan Ive 的只是零落的報導，並不是厚厚的書，他很少接受訪問，關於他的東西總是零零碎碎的: Jonathan很害羞、謙虛和低調。由 Chingford 來的男孩成為一代的英國設計師，與他的家人悄悄地住在三潘市，享受少數超越孤癖的 Aston Martin 的成就。(毫無疑問，那是因為它的美而不是地位的象徵)
Despite the ubiquity of his designs, Ive insists that he doesn’t get an ego rush from seeing so many of us using his products. “I’m not driven by making a cultural impact,” he says. “That’s just a consequence of taking a remarkably powerful technology and making it relevant.
儘管他的設計無處不在，Ive 不認為許多使用他的產品的人這事，使他有突如其來的自滿。”我們的推動力不是由創造文化影響而來”他說。”那只是一種因為使用了非常強大的科技後的結果，而這結果則與我有關。”
“My goal is simply to try to make products that really are meaningful to people. Ultimately there is something motivating and inspiring in seeing someone using an Apple product and enjoying an Apple product.”
“我的目標很簡單，就是製造那些對人們真正有意思的產品。最終，當看到使用者使用 Apple產品及享受 Apple 產品時，便感到激勵和鼓舞。”
Last month’s Apple results showed strong sales of the iMac and the launch of the stunning iPhone has soared profits at the company by 36 per cent to more than $1bn. That’s a lot of people using, a lot of people enjoying.
上月Apple公司的iMac銷售業績很強，還發表了令人驚嘆的iPhone ，那使公司的利潤大幅上升了 36%以上，約 10億美元。很多人在使用及在享受Apple的產品。
Ive was nearing the end of his four-year industrial design course at Newcastle Polytechnic (now the University of Northumbria) when he first used a Mac. After years of combat with PCs, the instinctual Mac was a revelation.
Ive在他快要完成 Newcastle Polytechnic (現在是 the University of Northumbria)\第四年工業設計課程時，第一次接觸 Mac 。經過多年與PC 的競賽，Mac 本身就是一個啟示。
“I remember it really clearly, the moment when I realised that technology could be accessible and intuitive. And I had a real clear sense of the people who made it: it speaks to their values and preoccupations. And that’s what makes Apple a remarkable and unique company.”
“我仍然記得很清楚那一刻，我意識到科技是可是可觸及的和富直覺的。及我能通過它瞭解那個製造者: 它本身就說了創造者的價值觀和專注。而那就是使 Apple成為一間非凡和獨特的公司的原因。”
Two decades after that moment of epiphany, could he imagine working anywhere else now? Ive laughs, but his answer is emphatic. “No.”
二十年後的今天，現有他沒有想過那時會為其他公司工作呢? Ive 笑了，但他肯定地回答 “沒有”。
Claire Beale is editor of ‘Campaign’
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Categories : Apple, Design, I.T., Technology
