Snippet: How to Save a Sinking Ship ☇

Wired UK was at the British Embassy’s Creative Summit and shared some remarks from Jonathan Ive, Apple’s senior vice president of industrial design (via 9to5Mac):

He explained how, in the 90s, Apple was very close to bankruptcy and that “you learn a lot about vital corporations through non-vital corporations”. When Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997, his focus was not on making money—”His observation was that the products weren’t good enough. His resolve was to make better products.” This was a different approach from other attempts to turn the company around, which had focused first and foremost on cost savings and revenue generation…

…Ive closed by reiterating the Apple mantra that “we don’t do market research”. “It will guarantee mediocrity and will only work out whether you are going to offend anyone.” He said it is a designer’s responsibility to understand potential opportunities and be familiar and fluent with technologies that could enable the creation of products that fit with those opportunities.