{"id":27,"date":"2015-04-09T20:08:41","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T20:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/freshthinkingseries\/?p=27"},"modified":"2015-04-09T20:46:09","modified_gmt":"2015-04-09T20:46:09","slug":"a-brief-reminder-the-work-of-the-worlds-best-still-needs-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/freshthinkingseries\/2015\/a-brief-reminder-the-work-of-the-worlds-best-still-needs-work\/","title":{"rendered":"A brief reminder: The work of the world\u2019s best still needs work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New Yorker\u2019s Ian Parker recently wrote a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2015\/02\/23\/shape-things-come\" target=\"_blank\">profile of Sir Jony Ive<\/a>, Apple\u2019s senior vice president of design. From what I\u2019ve seen on Twitter and read on other sites, its publication\u2014all 17,000 words of it\u2014basically had tech and design enthusiasts salivating. I just finished reading it, finally. The piece has a lot of never before reported details on the development of Apple Watch, the company after Steve Jobs, and the rise of Ive\u2019s abstract and operational power at the firm.<\/p>\n<p>One important nugget of wisdom I think anyone can take away from the article has to do with the work of Apple\u2019s designers, who are often regarded as the world\u2019s best.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a section where Parker is sharing details on the people who occupy the company\u2019s design studio and how their \u201cmultinationalism, and their lives of individual affluence and shared reputation, would be familiar to soccer players on Europe\u2019s grandest teams.\u201d He then reveals that Apple has three headhunters focused exclusively on searching for design talent, and they find maybe one\u2014!\u2014a year. That\u2019s saying something about the talent level of designers at our favourite consumer electronics company. We kind of already knew these guys were on a different level though\u2014so what is further significant about them?<\/p>\n<p>Consider what Parker tells us next:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Team members work twelve hours a day and can\u2019t discuss work with friends. Each project has a lead designer, but almost everyone contributes to every project, and shares the credit. (Who had this or that idea? \u201cThe team.\u201d) Ive describes his role as lying between two extremes of design leadership: he is not the source of all creativity, nor does he merely assess the proposals of colleagues. The big ideas are often his, and he has an opinion about every detail. Team meetings are held in the kitchen two or three times a week, and Ive encourages candor. \u201cWe put the product ahead of anything else,\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s say we\u2019re talking about something that I\u2019ve done that\u2019s ugly and ill-proportioned\u2014because, believe you me, I can pull some beauties out of the old hat.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. It\u2019s fine, and we all do, and sometimes we do it repeatedly, and we have these\u00a0<em>seasons<\/em>\u00a0of doing it\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had one last week,\u201d Akana said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhich one?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe packaging thing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s true,\u201d Ive said, laughing. \u201cIt was so bad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Akana had proposed that an Ultrasuede cloth inside the box for a gold version of the Apple Watch should be an orangey-brown. Ive had objected with comic hyperbole, comparing it to the carpeting in a dismal student apartment. In the same amused spirit, Akana had then asked, \u201cSo you don\u2019t like it?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Did you catch that? The most talented designers and creatives in the world have bad ideas. <em>Yes, they are capable of having bad ideas.<\/em> Not just you. We should all be relieved to learn these types of things, and when it comes to our own work, this revelation should prompt us to remember a few things, including some insight from the book <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/gp\/product\/0307361179\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=15121&amp;creative=330641&amp;creativeASIN=0307361179&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=notpor-20\">Creativity, Inc.<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/ir-ca.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=notpor-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=15&amp;a=0307361179\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" \/>.<\/p>\n<p>First, remember that no matter who you are, or how talented you are, the ideas, work, art, writing, or designs you come up with may not start out perfect. But it is in the intentional processes of refinement that they may be improved. Also, this refinement process often involves the sharing of your work or art, which brings me to the next point\u2026<\/p>\n<p>In the book Creativity, Inc., author Ed Catmull explains one of the most important axioms that the Pixar Brain Trust (the group of creatives responsible for all movie development) subscribes to. The core of it, as he writes, is that \u201cYou are not your idea, and if you identify too closely with your ideas, you will take offense when they are challenged.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New Yorker\u2019s Ian Parker recently wrote a profile of Sir Jony Ive, Apple\u2019s senior vice president of design. From what I\u2019ve seen on Twitter and read on other sites, its publication\u2014all 17,000 words of it\u2014basically had tech and design enthusiasts salivating. I just finished reading it, finally. The piece has a lot of never [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A brief reminder: The work of the world\u2019s best still needs work - Fresh Thinking Series<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The New Yorker\u2019s Ian Parker recently wrote a profile of Sir Jony Ive, Apple\u2019s senior vice president of design. 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