《TIME》专访 Apple 副总裁 Jony Ive

拜 Apple「臭名昭著」的保密风格和 Jony Ive 总所周知的低调所赐，对这位著名的设计总监的深度采访基本是毫不存在的。不过，这种局面终于被打破了。Ive 最近邀请 John Arlidge 到矽谷的 Cupertino 接受《时代》杂志的专访。这是自 Ive 在 20 年前成为苹果公司的首席设计师以来的头一遭。这篇采访覆盖的内容包括由 Ive 主导的各种创新设计比如  iMac，iPod，iPhone 和 iPad，到去世的 Steve Jobs 以及未来对这位科技巨匠意味著什么。以下是 Arlidge 写的这篇采访的开篇几个段落，全文请前往 TIME.com.

We use Jonathan Ive’s products to help us to eat, drink and sleep, to work, travel, relax, read, listen and watch, to shop, chat, date and have sex. Many of us spend more time with his screens than with our families. Some of us like his screens more than our families. For years, Ive’s natural shyness, coupled with the secrecy bordering on paranoia of his employer, Apple, has meant we have known little about the man who shapes the future, with such innovations as the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. But last month, he invited me to Cupertino in Silicon Valley where Apple is based, for his first in-depth interview since he became head of design almost 20 years ago.

The gods — or was it the ghost of Steve Jobs? — seemed against it. Jobs didn’t like Apple execs doing interviews. It had not rained properly in California for months but that morning the clouds rolled off the Pacific, turning the Golden Gate Bridge black. Interstate 280 South to Silicon Valley was a river of water, instead of the usual lava streaks of stop-start SUVs. But just after 10AM, an Apple tech-head appeared in an all-white meeting room on the first floor of building 4 of the firm’s antiseptic headquarters with strict instructions to find an Earl Grey tea bag.

“Hello. Thanks for coming,” grins Ive, as he rolls in, picking up his brew. Ive is the most unremarkable remarkable person you could meet. You might think you’d recognize him if you passed him on the street, but you wouldn’t. He’s not particularly tall, is well built and bald(ish), has two-day-old stubble and dresses like dads do on weekends — navy polo shirt, canvas trousers, desert boots. He speaks slowly and softly in an Essex accent totally unaffected by living in America for more than two decades. “I can’t even bring myself to say math, instead of maths, so I say mathematics. I sound ridiculous,” he laughs.