Sir Jony Ive, designer

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sir Jony Ive is a designer who is best known for his pioneering work at Apple alongside his friend and colleague, the late Steve Jobs. Jony’s creative vision is behind some of the company’s seminal products which have transformed the way we live today including phones, music players and watches.

He was born in Chingford in east London and loved drawing and spending time in his father’s workshop where the two of them made the young Jony’s Christmas presents including a go-kart, a treehouse and a toboggan.

He studied Industrial Design at Newcastle Polytechnic and moved to San Francisco to work for Apple in 1992. In 1997 Steve Jobs returned to the company, having been ousted several years earlier, and the two of them set about revolutionising the landscape for home computers with the creation of the iMac. In 2019 Jony set up his own company LoveFrom with the industrial designer Marc Newson. In 2023 Jony and his team designed a foldable Red Nose for Comic Relief and in the same year the company launched a scholarship programme aimed at increasing representation in the design industry.

In 2012 he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to design and enterprise.

DISC ONE: Really Saying Something (US Extended Version) - Bananarama, Fun Boy Three DISC TWO: De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da - The Police DISC THREE: Main Theme - Carter Takes a Train - Roy Budd DISC FOUR: Singin’ in the Rain - Harry Ive DISC FIVE: Don’t You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds DISC SIX: Define Dancing - Thomas Newman DISC SEVEN: Debussy: Suite bergamasque, L.75: 3. Clair de lune. Composed by Claude Debussy and performed by Claudio Arrau (piano) DISC EIGHT: "40" - U2

BOOK CHOICE: The complete set of Jeeves & Wooster novels by P G Wodehouse LUXURY ITEM: A bed CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: "40" - U2

Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley

Transcript

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0:00.0	No, you keep that private.
0:04.1	Find out what made Lily Allen and Mickey to Oliver say this.
0:08.0	It's just so next level what we're talking about.
0:10.9	But you know what I mean?
0:12.4	And this.
0:13.3	I think we should put our phones down and go to the park
0:15.9	and try and remember what was good about the world
0:18.3	and let's try and get back to there.
0:20.2	Sounds good. Join them as they's try and get back to there. Sounds good.
0:21.3	Join them as they talk about pretty much everything.
0:24.8	Yes, we do go to all sorts of places, happy, sad and everything in between.
0:29.7	Miss me with Lily Allen and Makita Oliver.
0:32.8	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:36.4	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:40.2	Hello, I'm Lauren Levern, and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast. Every week,
0:44.6	I ask my guest to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them
0:49.0	if they were cast away to a desert island. And for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:56.6	I hope you enjoy listening. My castaway this week is the designer Sir Johnny Ive.
1:24.1	He is by any measure, one of the most, if not the most celebrated and influential designers today.
1:30.7	The products he created at Apple, alongside his best friend and colleague, the late Steve Jobs,
1:35.8	have changed our lives and our world in ways we're still only just beginning to understand.
1:41.9	His designs for phones, music players and watches shifted our ideas
	...

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