Jony Ives' (No Longer So) Secret Design Weapon

Jony Ive is widely hailed as a genius of beautiful, minimalist design. But a surprising number of his most striking creations bear a more than passing resemblance to the work of another design genius, Dieter Rams of Braun. Rams was an incredibly influential industrial designer from the 60s until the 90s when he retired from Braun. His 606 Universal Shelving System, designed for Vitsœ in 1960 is a staple of modern interiors as well.

Ive has widely praised Rams for his designs that are "bold, pure, perfectly-proportioned, coherent and effortless." Rams is also a master of intuitive design. "At a glance, you knew exactly what it was and exactly how to use it," Ives has said.

For his own part, Rams has written in the Telegraph, "I have always regarded Apple products—and the kind words Jony Ive has said about me and my work—as a compliment."  Ive's work for Apple has indeed been a sincere form of flattery of Rams. The two have shared the strong support of management which is what has allowed them to have such a broad impact on their respective companies. "Without doubt there are few companies in the world," Rams wrote of Apple, "that genuinely understand and practice the power of good design in their products and their businesses."

I sent Leander Kahney, editor of Cult of Mac and author of Ive's biography, Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products, the side-by-side comparisons above and he admitted that they were, "very compelling." He thinks many of them, like the calculator example, are a kind of "homage rather than shallow copying." They look the same but what the products do is quite different. "That's key," Kahney says. "Ive has always said that design is not how things look, but how they work."

Kahney also stresses that not only has Ive acknowledged Braun and Ram as influences, but as a student he experienced "Ram's work and legacy is design 101." Not surprisingly, the master's "ten principles for good design" reads like Apple's playbook:

1. Good design is innovative
2. Good design makes a product useful
3. Good design is aesthetic
4. Good design makes a product understandable
5. Good design is unobtrusive
6. Good design is honest
7. Good design is long-lasting
8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail
9. Good design is environmentally friendly
10. Good design is as little design as possible

Hewing to the principles one has been indoctrinated with in design school is one thing, of course, and a career of fetishizing the relics of a cult is another. Art schools routinely release students who do just that. Ive, the son of a silversmith, is certainly a master craftsman but the amount of pure reference to a single source—Rams' work for Braun—does strike me as fetishistic.

Indeed in Ive's attempt to use Rams aesthetic in software—and area of design that Dieter never touched—Jony has shown an uncharacteristic lack of focus and consistency. It is the parts of iOS 7 that still look like tools—the clocks and compass and calculator—that the design feels the most assured. But in cases like the home screen, for which there is no precedent in Rams, he seems at sea.

By this measure it seems clear that Dieter Rams will forever remain Jony Ive's superior in the design pantheon, no matter how many people, in Rams' words, "queue to buy them."

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