In the aftermath of the announcement of Apple’s heavily revamped operating system this week, the analysts tried to explain why iOS was ditching long-established design elements and icons. What happened to skeuomorphism and photo-realism? Why did the notebook app icon no longer look like an aging yellow legal pad, and the calendar didn’t resemble the red-and-yellow object you stuck on your desk ten years ago? Ah, the analysts said, we are moving on to a level of smartphone maturity, where you know what a photo app looks like without having to look at a ‘photo’ of a sunflower.
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Tumblr, it seems, has a different opinion. Some of its users just think Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Jony Ive went on a rainbow gradient trip and stuck Helvetica Neue Ultra Light on everything. Well, at least that’s the message you’ll get after reading through the entertaining new blog ‘Jony Ive Redesigns Things‘, which mocks everything from the Apple designer’s quest for simplicity to his standard grey t-shirt and his company’s stock price.
The crowdsourced stream of designs poke fun at a number of elements of the new operating system — from the way its menus become transparent (allowing you to see fuzzy spots representing the icons below) to the simplistic new designs of Apple’s default apps. The idea behind them is simple: if Ive could redesign iconic brands, objects and posters, what would they look like?
Well, perhaps something like this:
You’ll never be able to look at Apple’s video on the design of its new operating system the same way again.
Images: Jony Ive Redesigns Things.
