With his soothing British accent, love of flowery design terms, and immediately recognizable pronunciation of “aluminium,” few people in tech are as widely parodied as Jony Ive.
Impressions of Ive have become a tech industry trope in their own right, but last week an Ive-centric joke debuted online, which Apple’s design guru apparently found so offensive that he had Apple’s legal team contact the creators to take it down.
The offending parody — supposedly intended as “good-natured teasing” — was a soundboard allowing people to string together various Ive adjectives, nouns, verbs and prepositions in nonsensical sentences to be spoken by a Jony Ive puppet.
Called JonyJive, the slightly surreal concept went viral, at which point creators Amy Hoy and Thomas Fuchs say they were on the receiving end of a phone call from Apple’s legal team asking them to remove it because it had “personally offended Ive.”
Hoy says Apple’s “legal call was not a threat. It was a request.” It’s certainly something of a rarity, however — particularly since the creators are themselves self-admitted Jony Ive fans. Their website now features the following disclaimer:
“This site was meant as good-natured teasing. We are (big) fans of Jony Ive’s work. We have an original iPod on a shelf in the office, so we’re reminded about great design every day. We didn’t intend to be mean or hurt feelings.”
There goes the invite to next year’s iPhone keynote, we guess!
Source: IBNLive
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
29 responses to “Jony Ive soundboard ‘personally offended’ Apple’s design guru”
Jony, get over yourself.
I agree!
I love Apple presentation sbut sometimes… they are a bit over the top. Bring it back to earth guys… And Jony… laugh once in a while. Design is sometimes funny too!
How exactly is design ‘funny’?
And why can’t Jony Ive (a human) be offended at some parody of him that seems to suggest, he’s a douchebag uttering some meaningless jabber of words that are too lofty for the average american anyway?
How can design never be funny? We would not have Monty Python which was designed to be funny from the start!
And although I love Apple’s designs… I don’t need to agree that 7000 series Aluminium is sexier or swankier than regular aluminium. It’s just better.
I think, you’re mixing up design with art, mate.
Art has that hugely emotive and free expression aspect to it where there’s satire, parody etc. Film is art. Design is a business solution. Very serious stuff. There can be ‘witty’ design solutions that have a communicative element to it. Big difference from being funny though.
And no, it’s not funny when someone is parodying your life’s best work. Because Apple’s ads are primarily just honest depictions of the product, just very gloriously flattering images and videos of their products, either set to a background score, or, if it’s a video tour, it will have a voiceover from the guy that actually worked on it. That’s it. They NEVER spend on your usual / conventional advertising. So, think about it with some empathy. If you were slaving your ass off for a company like this, would you like it when someone makes a silly parody of you?
Sure, Jony could have been mature about it too, and just let it slide, but he did care, and nothing’s so wrong with that. Cut him some slack.
And the write up says it all – the legal department made a professional ‘request’, that’s all. No threat or so.
He should take a lesson from dan rather and have a laugh, When family guy parodied him it was hilarious and so is this. Grow up Jony this was going to be done sooner or later.
What a baby. Maybe if the soundboard used beautiful chamfered edges it wouldn’t have offended him?
I bet he’s a total cunt in person.
I’m surprised he isn’t offended by the camera bump.
If he didn’t do those over-the-top flowery terms so often…
Wonder how some of these judgmental people would react if it was their ugly mugs on a website spouting off nonsense like a puppet with tourrettes syndrome.
If I was famous enough for someone to do this I’d take it as the price of admission!
You make a valid point, but he’s not a movie star or sports star that lives in the limelight. Not the same.
He’s a public figure by nature of the videos from which these were taken! We’ll just agree to disagree then.
I hate British accents. Historians and linguists have shown that the way Brits talk now is a deliberate affectation from the 1700s, the purpose of which – of course, because it’s British – was to distinguish further the “upper” classes from the “common” folk. The classist nature of British society I’ve always found repugnant as an American and I find nothing charming, romantic and impressive in this accent, regardless who is speaking that way.
Que Paaaasa
Wait, so you think all Brits have the same accent? Surely what you’re saying applies only to Received Pronunciation.
Yes, you are absolutely correct. I presumed that from context of the article this intention would be clear without belaboring the point.
It would do if Jony spoke with RP. Since he doesn’t, I don’t see how your historical note applies.
Deliberate obtuseness does not become you. Some additional historical enquiry might resolve your concerns.
mate, what the fuck are you talking about?
This singular British accent. What exactly does it sound like? (Hint: Britain consists of England, Scotland and Wales.)
There is simply no such thing as a British accent. It doesn’t exist. Do some research before you post your bile.
“With his soothing British accent,”
What’s so soothing about a British accent? You could say his voice is soothing, but a British accent soothing? No.
“This site was meant as good-natured teasing.”
So does that mean they wimped out and took it down??
What they should be making fun of is his awful contribution to iOS design.
A call from the legal department of any company, and much more so if it’s a company the size and power of Apple, is always a threat and never a “request”.
It’s sad Johnny’s ego is so fragile he couldn’t either make the call himself or just be an adult and play along. It would have been so much better if he had surprised them by calling them up and contributing a few “special” or “exclusive” sound bites to the site.
Jony please! Go on over to Ebaums ETC. And Che k out all the soundboards there. Love ya but really get over yourself and have fun while allowing others to have fun too. The very fact anyone gives a $?&! to create a soundboard of you is an honor.
Dear Jony Ive,
You are a pompous, self-important twit. Moreover, your design aesthetic is derivative of Sony during it’s own design heyday. Your monologues are irritating, and no one cares about how there is only 1 micron’s worth of space between the Apple Watch’s screen and its bezel.
Shut up,
The Rest of the World
Funny, it’s really the people being critical of Jony who seem to be raising him to a par-human level by denying him a perfectly normal, human reaction of being offended by some silly parody of him that seems to suggest, however satirically or playfully, that he’s just spewing rubbish!
I think, he’s a guy with a great sense of humour and he always looks so passionate about design, and happy, in his interviews. Grant him some reason to be offended by SOMETHING. He’s only human.
Jesus, if someone made a soundboard of me I’d take them out for a beer.