2. Where is Brainstorm?
Apple Park is the last project Chief Designer worked with Founder. Unlike other products he is involved in, Apple Park cannot be iterated and can't be held in his hands or his pocket. For him, Apple Park is the most personal design - he wants to continue the spirit of Founder, into the physical design of Apple headquarters.
In 2004, when they were walking in Hyde Park, London, Founder told Chief Designer that he wanted to build a campus. Like Stanford, there were many lawns for everyone to walk and discuss freely. At that time, Apple was booming, and the company slowly began to plan new spaces and purchased 175 acres of space.
Chief Designer and Founder often sketched together, read books, and talked about ideas. They set some of the principles of building in Apple Park: Deciding to use natural light to create a work scene that makes employees happy and productive. He decided to build Apple Park just like a product, not just designing it as a building.
After the death of Founder in 2011, Chief Designer's responsibilities further expanded, requiring simultaneous monitoring of hardware production and user experience. Excessive responsibility also made him feel tired. In 2015, Chief Designer began to reduce some of his management tasks, and his position changed from "Design Senior Vice President" to "Chief Design Officer." According to Bloomberg, after the release of the Apple Watch, Chief Designer began to gradually withdraw from the daily management work and even went to the company twice a week.
Before Apple Park was put into use, Apple's employees were scattered in more than 100 places in Silicon Valley, making collaboration difficult, which is not conducive to innovation. CEO Apple once said that this is not the way they expect to work. It does not represent their corporate culture.
Apple Park has achieved integration. In terms of function, it not only carries office functions but also becomes a visitor center and sales place, eliminating the distance between Apple and consumers. In design, the main building has a ring design. Chief Designer believes that the ring is the most natural feeling for people. When you are in the middle of a circular building, the building itself will blend into the surrounding environment without any surprise.
Chief Designer's friend once commented on the reporters of The Wall Street Journal. Other designers may be great essayists, but the difference between essayists and poets is that poetry is more refined, so poets need to be more diligent in improving details, iterating, and improving refinement.
3. Apple that transforms into service
The departure of the Chief Designer is good or bad for Apple. It is still difficult to judge. But what is certain is that capital hates this news. After the news of the Chief Designer's departure from Apple, Apple's stock price fell by 1%, and the market value evaporated by about $9 billion.
Apple CEO tried to downplay the impact of the incident. The Apple design team will continue their work and am happy to continue working with Chief Designer.
At present, Apple Industrial Design Vice President and Human Interface President will take over the design work soon, and directly obey Apple Chief Operating Officer instead of Report to Apple CEO again. This could mean a further decline in the status of design within Apple.
In the future, Apple may continue to transform into "service." This trend has been seen since the 2015 Apple Watch response was flat, and it has become more apparent in the past two years. At the March 2019 conference, Apple did not release any hardware products but launched a series of software services, including magazine subscription service Apple News+, credit card service Apple Card, game subscription service Apple Arcade, video subscription service Apple TV and so on.
At the WWDC (Apple Global Developers Conference), which ended, Apple updated its four systems (macOS, iOS, tvOS, watchOS) and also equipped the iPad with a separate operating system, iPadOS, and Apple Watch Your own App Store. This gives developers more platforms to develop and sell applications, which in turn enables Apple to expand its ecosystem and generate revenue.
As early as the 2011 Founder vacation (which turned out to be his last holiday), there were a lot of news reports claiming that the Chief Designer planned to leave Apple. The British "Guardian" published a report calling it "Apple's worst nightmare.
In 2014, Chief Designer admitted that if one day Apple loses its innovative genes, he will leave. But at the time, he did not think that this kind of thing would happen.
The last time Chief Designer was ready to leave Apple in 1996, it coincided with the eve of Founder's return. Chief Designer became the head of the design department but was fed up with the company's desire to maximize profits and neglect product design.
Now, losing the excitement of childhood, Chief Designer chose to leave Apple.
He will continue to design work. Although he will no longer be an employee of Apple, he will still actively participate in the design of Apple products for many years to come.
At a staff meeting a few years ago, Founder once said that one of the most fundamental motivations is that when you do something with love and care, even if you might never meet the product you made for it.
This is why the ex-Chief Designer's new company is called "LoveFrom."